“On leaving Kilrush I entrusted my person and my portmanteau to a small boat which I had engaged to carry me over to Scattery Island, and thence to the coast of Kerry. The morning was warm, and not a breath of wind disturbed the surface of the water, but the sun was completely concealed by a thick yellow fog, which scarcely allowed us to see beyond the length of our boat. Nevertheless, my boatman brought me in safety to the little green island, which I was about to visit for the sake of its interesting ruins, and by the time we reached its shore the fog had sufficiently dispersed to allow us to distinguish the remains of its ‘Seven Churches,’ while the lofty column of the round towers presented itself at first as a dark line, and then gradually broke with more distinctness through the turbid atmosphere. “These Round Towers are the most interesting remains of antiquity that Ireland possesses. Like most travellers in Ireland, I was soon infected with a passion for round towers; but as this passion is one of which few of my friends in Germany are likely to have a distinct idea, I believe that some introductory remarks on these venerable buildings will not be out of place here. “These Round Towers are built of large stones, and when seen at a distance look rather like lofty columns than towers, being from the base to the top of nearly the same thickness. They are now, indeed, by no means all of the same height, many of them having fallen into ruins; but those which remain tolerably complete are all from 100 to 120 feet high, from forty to fifty in circumference, and from thirteen to sixteen in diameter. At the base the wall is always very thick and strong, but becomes slighter towards the top. Within, the tower is hollow, without any opening but a door, generally eight or ten feet from the ground, and some very narrow apertures or windows, mostly four in number, near the top.[74] These windows are usually turned towards the four cardinal points of the compass. “In all parts of Ireland these singular buildings are found scattered about, all resembling each other like the obelisks of Egypt. Sometimes round towers are found in solitary islands, sometimes on the side of a river, or a plain, or some secluded corner of a valley. The whole number of them, according to the map of Ireland published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, is, at present, 118; of these fifteen are in a perfect state of preservation, and of thirty-six little more than the foundation remains. “The general name of ‘Round Towers’ is very little characteristic of these remarkable buildings, for towers are seldom otherwise than round. Some writers have called them ‘pillar temples,’ but this name assigns to them a designation which it is by no means certain that they bore. The characteristic peculiarity of these towers consists in their resemblance to mighty pillars, and the most appropriate name for them would, in my opinion, be ‘pillar towers.’