Cashel

Cashel, a town of Ireland, in County Tipperary, 100 miles SW. of Dublin and 5 miles SE. of its railway station. It is the see of a bishop of the Episcopal Church, and of a Roman Catholic archbishop. It is irregularly built on the south and east slopes of an isolated height, rising abruptly from a rich and extensive plain. It was a parliamentary borough till 1870, and possesses a barrack, infirmary, and market-house. The ancient kings of Munster resided here. The top of the height, or 'Rock of Cashel,' which rises to about 300 feet, is occupied by an assemblage of the most interesting ruins in Ireland. The ruins consist of a cathedral, founded 1169, burned 1495, and afterwards repaired; a stone-roofed chapel, said to have been built 1127 by Cormac MacCarthy, king of Munster; the palace of the Munster kings; a round tower, 90 feet high and 56 in circumference; and an old cross. At Cashel in 1172 Henry II. received the homage of the king of Limerick, and here he called a council of the clergy, at which decrees were passed for the regulation of the church. Pop. (1851) 4798; (1881) 3961.