St Kevin's Monastery, Towers & Viking Raids
Very eery place in Wicklow Mountains just outside Dublin.
The first tower sits on top of "St Kevin's Kitchen". The second is a lookout. It was built in the 9th Century (I think) in order to protect the Monastery from Viking invaders. The door is about 3m above the ground. The tower could only be accessed via a ladder.
The reason for this: When the vikings came, the Monastery's monks put anything of value: religious relics; jewellery; chickens and ipods inside the tower. They then pulled up the ladder and hid inside. At least a few of them would. The rest would run away. A sensible move really. It can't have taken a determined Viking oo long to figure out where the door was and how to get in. Also, monasteries can be rebuilt but only if there are enough living monks around to rebuild them ... the Vikings were a pretty tough bunch to contend with.
I was going to confirm this with a link to Wikipedia's account of the Vikings. However, their version of Viking history is disappointingly tame. Now, I'm a fan of Wikipedia but their policy of neutrality can produce some uninspiringly vanilla analyses. And so, according to Wikipedia, Vikings "exerted influence throughout the coastal areas of Ireland". "Exerted influence"!!? Did they have a quiet word with them over tea and bisccuits? This weapon wielding horde's idea of "exerting influence" extended to bloody murder, ransack and pillage.
Some interesting primary source accounts of Viking raids, although not relating directly to Ireland, provide a fuller account.
The first tower sits on top of "St Kevin's Kitchen". The second is a lookout. It was built in the 9th Century (I think) in order to protect the Monastery from Viking invaders. The door is about 3m above the ground. The tower could only be accessed via a ladder.
The reason for this: When the vikings came, the Monastery's monks put anything of value: religious relics; jewellery; chickens and ipods inside the tower. They then pulled up the ladder and hid inside. At least a few of them would. The rest would run away. A sensible move really. It can't have taken a determined Viking oo long to figure out where the door was and how to get in. Also, monasteries can be rebuilt but only if there are enough living monks around to rebuild them ... the Vikings were a pretty tough bunch to contend with.
I was going to confirm this with a link to Wikipedia's account of the Vikings. However, their version of Viking history is disappointingly tame. Now, I'm a fan of Wikipedia but their policy of neutrality can produce some uninspiringly vanilla analyses. And so, according to Wikipedia, Vikings "exerted influence throughout the coastal areas of Ireland". "Exerted influence"!!? Did they have a quiet word with them over tea and bisccuits? This weapon wielding horde's idea of "exerting influence" extended to bloody murder, ransack and pillage.
Some interesting primary source accounts of Viking raids, although not relating directly to Ireland, provide a fuller account.
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
posted by dan p at 18:39
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