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| St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny |
The other weekend we climbed up the round tower of St Canice's
Cathedral in Kilkenny, Ireland. My
ten-year-old son and I. We had different objectives in mind. His
was to view the city streets from above and check out the accuracy of maps he has been drawing since last summer. Mine was a
periodical reminder that I don't like heights.
Here's the mandatory tourist stuff - constructed in the
mid-9th century , 100 feet 30 metres high, built as a place
of refuge during Viking raids, one of only two round towers in the
country open to the public to climb.
Rapunzel springs
to mind when I think of this tower and the nearby one at the Rock of
Cashel (which Rapunzel may still live in, who knows, it isn't accessible
to the public).
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| Rock of Cashel |
When we returned home we read the
photocopied leaflet from St Canice's. The foundations of that 100 foot
tower are ... two feet deep. 60 centimeters. Originally built on top of fresh graves,
the tower has stood for a millennium with foundations shallower than my
house.
It set me thinking. The tower only leans two
feet off true vertical. That might not be due to subsidence in the
shallow foundation - it might be a limitation in 9th century building
technology. Its walls are a couple of feet thick. Solid granite blocks
set on top of each other. Little or no sign of renovation. This
isn't a structure plastered together on the inside with modern concrete.
The tower is built with a durable integrity.
As
authors we believe in our writing. Building blocks are required to reach
the sky, to stretch up above the street and gain a view of the city. We
worry about our foundations - the validity of our concepts, our ideas.
We use our materials - the skills which are our mortar, the plot which
is our granite. Social media is our scaffolding (presumably those Dark
Ages Viking-avoiders used scaffolding). Those who have confidence raise
themselves up and charge for entry. Here endeth the metaphor.
This was first posted by yours truly on Authors Electric 26th April 2014
