1898. The author's object of this book is to prove that the round towers date from a more remote antiquity than is usually assigned to them; that they were erected long before Christianity reached these islands, and even before the date of the Milesian and Scandinavian invasions. In support of this view, he contrasts the materials, architecture and costliness of their construction with those of the early Christian churches usually found in their vicinity and accounts for the contiguity of the latter by stating that the Christian missionaries selected for the sites of their churches localities previously consecrated to religious use.