Glendalough: St Kevin’s ‘Kitchen’
If there’s one image
that typifies Glendalough, it’s the unique survival that is commonly known as St
Kevin’s ‘Kitchen’. This stone roofed oratory dates
broadly to the 12th century, though it appears to have had a complicated building history. If I understand it correctly, the church started as a nave-only
structure with a sacristy and chancel added later. The integral belfry with
four small windows and conical cap seems intended to mirror the adjacent round
tower. It is this feature – resembling a chimney – that led to it being
rebranded as a kitchen rather than a church. Seeing as it dates to about a half
a millennium after the time of St Kevin, he wasn’t cooking up dinner for anyone
there either.
Notes:
Much of the detail
about the individual sites has been rather shamelessly taken from some
excellent sites & I urge you to go and explore them too:
To view the 3D Images
you’ll need a pair of red/blue glasses. These can be purchased relatively
cheaply from Amazon [here].
Great article.
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