Tower, Saintjohns, Co. Meath

This sturdy three-storey structure, measuring roughly 8 metres north to south and 7.5 metres east to west, likely represents one of two towers recorded at the site when the friary was suppressed in 1540. Positioned between the river just 25 metres to the north and a low ridge 120 metres south, the tower stands south of an entrance gateway in the western wall of what was once a fortified bawn.

The tower's defensive architecture reveals the uncertain times in which it was built. Entry is gained through a pointed doorway in a small projecting tower on the northern wall's eastern end, leading into a barrel-vaulted ground floor chamber measuring approximately 5.7 by 5.1 metres internally. A spiral staircase in the northeast corner connects all three levels, with the first floor featuring a fireplace at the northern end of the western wall and windows on three sides. The second floor follows a similar layout but shifts the fireplace to the southern end of the western wall, whilst both upper floors originally had access to a garderobe tower projecting from the southern wall, though this convenience is now largely destroyed.

Despite centuries of wear and alterations, including inserted doorways that likely replaced earlier window openings on the ground floor, the tower retains much of its medieval character. The battlements have largely disappeared save for a rebuilt turret at the southwest corner, but the remaining structure offers a tangible connection to the world of the Crutched Friars, those enigmatic religious brothers who once walked these grounds beside the Boyne, their daily lives protected by these thick stone walls that still stand sentinel over the river valley.