Tuamgrainey holds a special place in the history of Ireland’s round towers, it’s the first one specifically mentioned in historical records. The Chronicon Scotorum, under the year 964, records the death of Bishop Cormac Ua Cillin, who built both the church at Tuamgrainey and its cloig-theach (bell-house or round tower). This makes it one of the earliest documented examples of these distinctive Irish structures.

The tower’s fate after the medieval period remains something of a mystery. George Petrie, the great 19th-century antiquarian, recorded a local tradition that parts of the tower still stood as late as 1800. However, when Richard Rolt Brash visited the site in 1852 with fellow archaeologist John Windele, their careful inquiries among the oldest local residents turned up no memory of any round tower.

Brash suggested that Petrie’s informants might have been mistaken, possibly confusing remnants of an ancient stone church with tower remains. This theory gains some credibility from the fact that the current Church of Ireland building on the edge of the village, just south of Scarriff, does incorporate parts of an early medieval church. But of any round tower, no trace survives.

The discrepancy between Petrie’s account and Brash’s findings highlights the challenges of preserving historical memory in an era before systematic archaeological recording. Local traditions can preserve genuine historical information for centuries, but they can also become confused or conflated over time.

Despite the absence of physical remains, the clear documentary evidence from the 10th-century annals provides strong justification for accepting that Tuamgrainey once possessed a round tower. It stands as a reminder that many of Ireland’s medieval monuments have disappeared entirely, leaving only their names in ancient texts.