Rock of Cashel, Ireland's Sacred Ruins

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One of the main places you'll want to see when visiting Ireland is the Rock of Cashel, Ireland's most important medieval site.
From a distance it is a most un­expected and wonderful pile rising on three hundred feet of rock in the middle of an immense flat empty plain, like some gigantic magic palace, sus­pended in air.
The picturesque complex has a character of its own and is one of the most remarkable collections of Celtic art and medieval architecture to be found anywhere in Europe. A unique, historic cathedral, castle, and round tower.
At your feet lies the Vale of Tipperary, an expanse of greenest green stretching unbroken over some of the fairest and most fertile land in Ireland. There is no other historic place of its kind in Ireland situated quite like it, overlooking as good a landscape as the human eye can gaze upon.
From the fourth century to the 12th century it was the residence of the kings of Munster, which was the southern half of Ireland.
Cashel's historical importance dates much further back than the foundation of its Cathedral. Long before the church came to Cashel the pagans held their barbarous rites and ceremonies on this rock. In the middle of the fifth century, St. Patrick arrived there in the course of his extraordinary mission through Ireland. It is said that St. Patrick, converted and baptized King Angus and founded the first Irish Christian church on the Rock of Cashel.
The cathedral walls still stand and form the center of this group of celebrated ruins, which are unparalleled in Ireland for picturesque beauty and antiquarian interest, a noble remnant of early pointed Gothic, with many fascinating relics.