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].

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