St. Declan

Last week, I went on a bus trip and saw a lot if the small towns that are around Dungarvan.  One of them was Ardmore.  This is the place where St. Declan started a church and converted people to Christianity in 350AD before Saint Patrick even came to Ireland.  One difference between them is that St. Declan sort of stayed in the same area in Ireland but St. Patrick moved around.

Some of St. Declan's church is still standing.  But it is the church that was built a few hundred years after he first built church.  St. Declan's firstr church was made out of wood so it did not last very long.  But the priests and monks he came after him built a stone church.

A wall of the old church.

Some more of the old church.

Around the church, there used to be a wall and there still is a big, tall, round tower.  Tom said this tower is the best one that is still standing in Ireland. The tower is almost 100 feet tall.  There were towers all over Ireland.  The towers were used to keep the monks, priests, and townspeople safe from attackers.  They would climb up a tall ladder to a door very high up on the tower and then pull the ladder inside the door and lock the door.  They would stay there until the attackers left.

A picture I found on the internet.  This was a sunnier day than when I was there!

A little ways away from the church and tower, is Saint Delcan's well.  People take little stones from the place where the church is and then use the stone to mark a cross on St. Declan's well.  Then you keep the stone!

Me carving a cross with my stone.