# The Round Towers of Ireland



## Potato (Sep 14, 2020)

The Round Towers of Ireland


Scattered with a seeming randomness across the rolling hills of Ireland are the remains of sixty-five round towers. Soaring as high as 34 meters above the ground, the towers are in remarkably fine condition considering the antiquity of their construction. When exactly the towers were constructed is unknown. Scholars have suggested that the most probable construction period was between the 7th and 10th centuries AD, and this hypothesis is based on the fact that nearly every tower is at the site of a known Celtic church dating from the 5th to 12th centuries. Initially each of the towers were freestanding structures but in later times other buildings, primarily churches and monastic foundations, were constructed around some of the towers.

Thirteen towers retain a conical cap and it is assumed that all the other towers once had similar caps that have fallen over the centuries. On a small number of towers battlements have been built on to the top but it is known that these battlements were added at a later date in the Middle Ages. The principles used in construction of the towers is always the same: two walls of block and mortar construction are built a few feet from one another and the space between is filled in with a core of rock rubble. This was a standard method of wall construction utilized by the Romans.

This idea that the round towers were erected and used primarily as watch towers and places of protection is strongly debated by an American scientist, Philip Callahan. Writing in his book, _Ancient Mysteries, Modern Visions_, *Callahan discusses research which indicates that the round towers may have been designed, constructed and utilized as huge resonant systems for collecting and storing meter-long wavelengths of magnetic and electromagnetic energy coming from the earth and skies.* Based on fascinating studies of the forms of insect antenna and their capacity to resonate to micrometer-long electromagnetic waves, Professor Callahan suggests that the Irish round towers (and similarly shaped religious structures throughout the ancient world) were human-made antenna which collected subtle magnetic radiation from the sun and passed it on to monks meditating in the tower and plants growing around the tower's base. The round towers were able to function in this way because of their form and also because of their materials of construction. Of the sixty-five towers, twenty-five were built of limestone, thirteen of iron-rich, red sandstone, and the rest of basalt, clay slate or granite - all of these being minerals which have paramagnetic properties and can thus act as magnetic antenna and energy conductors. Callahan further states that the mysterious fact of various towers being filled with rubble for portions of their interiors was not random but rather may have been a method of "tuning" the tower antenna so that it more precisely resonated with various cosmic frequencies.

Equally intriguing, Callahan shows that the seemingly random geographical arrangement of the round towers throughout the Irish countryside actually mirrors the positions of the stars in the northern sky during the time of winter solstice. Archaeological excavations at the bases of the towers have revealed that many towers were erected upon the tops of much older graves and it is known that many of the tower sites were considered sacred places long before the arrival of Christianity in Ireland. These facts compel us to wonder if the ancient Irish, like the Egyptians, the Mayans and many other archaic cultures understood there to be an energetic resonance between specific terrestrial locations and different celestial bodies.


Philip Callahan and The Round Towers

To test his hypothesis be built a model _Round Tower_ from card which he coated with crushed grains of red clay flower pot.

Although the clay granules alone did not stick to a 1,000 gauss magnet he found the _Round Tower_ [coated with clay granules] was attracted to the magnet.

In another experiment using a 10 centimetre high _Round Tower_ made from sandpaper he found “the power meter went up from 6 DB of energy to 9 DB of energy” when the _Round Tower_ model was exposed to radio energy of three centimetre wavelength.

Overall, Philip Callahan demonstrated that his model _Round Towers_ functioned as [both] _Magnetic Antenna_ and _Radio Wave Guides_.

The Round Towers of Ireland, by Henry O’Brien—A Project Gutenberg eBook

THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE TUATH-DE-DANAANS
BY HENRY O’BRIEN
CHAPTER XXVI (Pp. 368-395)​Reverting to his proper subject of the origin and purpose of the round towers, our author examines the evidence bearing on the date of their erection. The Ulster Annals record the destruction of fifty-seven of these towers by an earthquake in A.D. 448, the natural inference being that they must have existed before the fifth century, but how long before is matter of conjecture. Tradition connects them with a personage styled the _Goban Saer_ (Freemason Sage); but this title being the name of a class, not of an individual, and having no settled place in chronology, does not further the solution of the difficulty. A better clue is found in the name of the place whereon was fought the first decisive battle between the Tuath-de-danaan invaders and the Celtic (Firbolg) inhabitants, which gave the supremacy[Pg lv] of the island to the former. From the number of commemorative towers erected there by the conquerors, this came to be known as _Moytura_ (in Irish, _Moye-tureadh_, _i.e._ “the field of the towers”); and as the date of the second battle, fought centuries later, is approximately B.C. 600 (p. 449), there is reason for assigning the erection of round towers to a period long preceding that of Christianity. The ascription of these towers to the Tuath-de-danaans is in a degree warranted by the fact that the word “_Tuathan-Tower_” is a well-known Irish expression, and that there seems to be no other word in the language which conveys the same idea.

[I skimmed through this lengthy essay which seems to be O'Brien debunking all theories of their purpose. Personally I tend to shy away from throwing anything we don't understand into the Religious category. It seems like a cop-out since then you aren't required to have a functional purpose for something.

When I first looked at these years ago there was a great article about staining that always occurred at the same spot very high on these towers. The author was speculating about the reason this always showed in the same spot and now I am unable to locate it. I do remember that their conclusion was that the towers helped to fertilize the surrounding farm land.]

*Oops, I see that this was already covered in the Star Towers thread. Sorry for chewing this cabbage twice (as my mom would say).*

Star shaped towers: what was their purpose?


> Note: This OP was recovered from the Sh.org archive.


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## Potato (Sep 23, 2020)

The Artist Formerly Known as "TeachMe" here. I still have the photos that didn't transfer over so thought I would add them in again.


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## Incognita (Aug 25, 2021)

Thank you for this post. This is a topic I've stumbled on many times over the past few years and my curiosity has ignited once again after learning that an ancestor of mine is buried at the Aghaviller round tower burial grounds in Kilkenny, Ireland. 
Im waiting on a book to arrive which delves into their proposed purpose:  among them the theory of paramagnetism/fertile farming ground theory.


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## iseidon (Apr 2, 2022)

There is an article (rus) on tart-aria.info by user lyanat that touches on this topic (as a private example in a broader context).


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