# General view [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ARCHITECT, Irish]() - Date: 0901-0950 - Technique: Photo ## Commentary The round tower at Glendalough \(30.48 m high\) is one of the most elegant in the country, with an especially subtle batter of 1:77. It is situated in the monastery complex set in a steep valley on the eastern edge of the Wicklow Mountains. The monastery owed its origin to St Kevin \(d. 618\), who chose this wild, lonely spot as the site of a hermitage. A century later it had become a flourishing monastery, teeming with pilgrims and students; it retained its vitality until the end of the 12th century despite the sequence of fires, plunderings, and other disasters mentioned in the annals. The chief relics of the ancient monastery are an impressive round tower and the ruins of at least nine Romanesque or pre-Romanesque churches scattered for about 2 km along the valley. ## Related artworks - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [General view]() - [General view]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()