Today took us to the old monastic settlement of Glendalough. Alaura wrote below on our time there. We are presently settled in the house of our friends Johanna and Eva in Wexford. Johanna is a CEF missionary and Eva is a nurse at the local hospital. We are thankful for their hospitality and looking forward to our visit here. Weather permitting, we will venture to the Irish Sea tomorrow.
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| St. Kevin's Church |
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| Round Tower built around 1000 AD. |
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| Monastery at Glendalough from the same time period. |
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| River at Glendalough. |
This afternoon, on our way to Wexford, we stopped for a couple hours to visit the old monastery community of Glendalough. The monastery was built in the 1100's. In the graveyard across from the monastery is a 100 foot tall round tower. A door is carved into the stone structure about 20 feet up. When the Normans would invade the monastery and the surrounding countryside, the monks would release a ladder from the door. After the people would climb up to take refuge in the tower room, the monks would follow and pull up the ladder behind them so that the invaders couldn't follow. Aside from this useful function, the tower was used to store food and call the monks to daily happenings by bell ringing. Surrounding the monastery is a large, sprawling graveyard with gravestones dating anywhere from the 900's to the present day.
