Kingship and architecture in 11th- and 12th-century Cashel

The Rock of Cashel is a limestone crag which rises majestically from the plains of south Tipperary. It is crowned today by a suite of magnificent ecclesiastical structures which were all constructed after AD 1101 (Fig 1), including the splendid Cormac’s Chapel. It is for the latter that the site is most famous and, indeed, these structures form one of the most iconic images of medieval Ireland. Yet, while these buildings’ architecture has justifiably seen them much discussed and debated, an issue which has not received adequate consideration, particularly in the context of the site’s 11th- and 12th- century development, is the fact that the Rock of Cashel represented the focal point of the pre-eminent royal landscape in the province of Munster from at least the 7th century. Consequently, throughout the medieval period the Rock of Cashel was a place thoroughly conditioned by developments in the political landscape, and this paper explores how ‘realpolitik’ operated through the Rock of Cashel’s development in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular, excavations by Brian Hodkinson in the 1990s uncovered evidence for activity between the 6th and 12th centuries, including a number of different structures and associated burials (1994, WS 4). While those excavations remain largely unpublished some recent radiocarbon dating allows a re-assessment of the original interpretation of the site’s development. This paper will suggest that the significance and symbolism of that evolution can only be understood when placed in the context of the struggle for supremacy in Munster and southern Ireland between two rival dynasties, the Uí Briain and Meic Carthaig. The structures and iconography of the Rock in this period reflect how dynasts of each group attempted to re-imagine and codify a royal ceremonial centre as a theatre for the political and ideological discourse regarding the issues which concerned contemporary 11th- and 12th-century society. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .