CONNECTION WITH IRELAND?
The purpose of the two detached towers of the Plan of
St. Gall has been the subject of a considerable amount of
controversy. J. R. Rahn suggested a connection with the
round towers of Ireland (fig. 85).[7]
But it appears that no
circular towers are known to have existed in Ireland early
enough to have been copied on the Plan of St. Gall.[8]
Moreover,
there is nothing else in the architectural layout of the
Plan that would suggest any special ties with Ireland; and
the general trend of the monastic reform movement, to
which the Plan owes its existence, was away from the Irish
tradition rather than toward it.
