What is the tallest church spire in Ireland?
- This topic has 29 replies, 15 voices, and was last updated 20 years, 9 months ago by
.
- Posts
The spire of St. Patricks church in Maynooth College is 273 feet high, and the central spire of St. Finbarr’s in Cork is about 250 feet high. Are there any spires taller than this around? Surely Dublin must have a few.
Hmmmm
The spire of St John’s Cathedral in Limerick is over 300 feet, and they personally lay claim to the title of tallest spire in Ireland.
fjp
one of the tallest in Dublin city must be the church on Thomas Street … it’s certainly the most visible
Truly Mr. Pugin designed the Cathedral to be in keeping with its surroundings. Its outlines reflect the majesty of the neighbouring mountains, with their pointed summits and their graceful curves.
The splendid spire, reaching, to 280 feet in height, seems to challenge the lordly Carran Tual, while the spirelets, as the other peaks, help to show forth the massive grandeur of their respective lords.
(From Killarney.ie)
St. John’s is the Seat of the Diocese of Limerick. The present day cathedral is built on the site of the old eighteenth-century one. Constructed between 1856 and 1861 under the supervision of architect Philip Charles Hardwick the Cathedral incorporates a tower with a 280 foot high spire. The building was consecrated by Cardinal Logue in 1894.
(From the Limerick Diocese website)
SS Augustine and John is the tallest extant spire in Dublin, but the high ground of its site exaggerates its height.
As for Monaghan, I currently cannot lay my hand to the data about its height — its somewhere here.
Perhaps Paul has a figure, he is a native.
I believe it is St Johns RC Cathedral in Limerick. It is 280ft high or 85 metres. This is usually quoted in tourist leaflets for Limerick.
Don’t know about the Cathedral in Monaghan.
According to the local museum, it is indeed 280 feet tall. I definitely remember hearing years ago that it was the same height as Limerick.
For those of you unfamiliar with St Macartan’s….. more here
The spire of St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork, to the pinnacle of the cross, is 300 feet.
The spire, designed by Ashlin and Coleman, was built by John Maguire of Cork. The copper cross was raised in March 1915. The clock and the carillon of 52 bells were installed in May 1916.
As far as I know the spire of the Church of John The Baptist, Lispole, Co Kerry is the highest above sea level in Europe. I think Ulm cathedral in Germany is quite tall as well. There are a lot of low ones in North Kerry. I wouln’t like to fall off any of them mind.
Hmmm I think we have regional pride taking over now… I doubt that Kerry statistic.
Ulm is the worlds tallest I think at 525 feet, simply awesome to stand beneath and look at.
http://germany.archiseek.com/baden_wurttemburg/ulm/munster.htmlI recently came across a site dealing with the tallest spire worldwide and the top entry for Ireland was St. John’s Cathedral, Limerick which they said was 308ft. or 93.8m.
@Jas wrote:
St. John’s is the Seat of the Diocese of Limerick. The present day cathedral is built on the site of the old eighteenth-century one. Constructed between 1856 and 1861 under the supervision of architect Philip Charles Hardwick the Cathedral incorporates a tower with a 280 foot high spire. The building was consecrated by Cardinal Logue in 1894.
(From the Limerick Diocese website)
Think I’d go with the horse’s mouth on this one…
The spire at 280 feet tall is one of the three tallest in the country was completed in 1883 to the designs of local architect M.A. Hennessy. St. Mary’s Cathedral in Killarney and St. Macartan’s in Monaghan are also the same height.
It would appear that not only does the Limerick Diocesan site agree with you, but also this site (Archiseek) in which I found the above quote.
So it would seem a tie between Limerick, Killarney and Monaghan unless Praxitelesat #12 is correct and St. Colman’s truly does stand at 300ft,
Does anyone have a really long measuring tape!!!!!!!!! 😀
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
