 The closely pronounced "cloichtheach" means stone-house or stone-building.The round tower seems to be the only significant stone building in Ireland before the advent of the Normans in AD 1169-71.UCD Professor of Archaeology Tadhg O'Keeffe has suggested that the towers were originally high-status royal chapels, citing how two of them (Kells and Duleek) were scenes of regicide.