Armoy Round Tower and Church

The Armoy Round Tower stands in the churchyard of St Patrick’s Church in the village of Armoy, County Antrim. It is the last trace of an early monastery founded by St Olcan, a pupil of St Patrick. The round tower survives only as a stump about eleven metres tall, with three internal floors. Its south-facing doorway sits 1.6 metres above ground, reached by a worn stone threshold. The tower’s entrance is 1.8 metres high, narrowing from 50 centimetres at the base to 46 centimetres at the top. Inside the arch sits a single monolith lintel just 18 centimetres wide. When archaeologists opened the tower in 1843 they found a conical capstone, showing the original roof was cone-shaped. Among the few tools recovered were bone needles and a twisted hair cord, rare relics of its builders. Visitors see the ruined tower beside the modern church, its worn doorway and lintel still in place. The churchyard is quiet, with grass and mature trees around the stone walls. A low path leads between gravestones to the tower base, where the height of the entrance and the narrow arch can be measured. The few remaining stones hint at the monastery that once stood here.