Best Attraction in County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland - Map and Reviews

The Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary is the most impressive and most dramatically sited medieval ecclesiastical complex in Ireland, a group of tenth to thirteenth-century buildings perched on a great limestone outcrop rising 60 metres from the Tipperary plain in a cluster of towers, chapel walls and cathedral ruins that has been one of the defining images of Irish medieval heritage since the Romantic period. The combination of the extraordinary natural setting, the quality and variety of the medieval buildings and the depth of historical association with the Kings of Munster and the early Irish church makes the Rock of Cashel one of the supreme heritage sites of Ireland. The rock was the traditional seat of the Kings of Munster from the fourth century and its conversion to ecclesiastical use began in 1101 when King Muirchertach Ua Briain donated it to the church. The buildings that developed on the rock over the following two centuries include Cormac's Chapel, built between 1127 and 1134 and the most complete and best-preserved Romanesque church in Ireland with its carved doorways and internal frescoes; the Round Tower, approximately 28 metres high and among the finest surviving examples of this characteristic Irish medieval form; the Cathedral, a Gothic building of the thirteenth century whose roofless nave and choir provide the dominant skyline feature; and the Hall of the Vicars Choral, whose restored interior houses the original St Patrick's Cross and interpretive displays. The views from the rock over the Golden Vale of Tipperary, one of the most fertile agricultural landscapes in Ireland, provide context for understanding why this outcrop was chosen as the seat of regional power from the earliest period of Irish history.