Mr. Gordon, in his Itinerarium Septentrionale, p. 164, 165, and pl. LXII. has described and exhibited two round towers in Scotland; one at Abernethy, near Perth, the other at Brechin. The first being in the capital city of the Picts, of whom it is the only remain, has probably occasioned these monuments to be called Pictish. But as they are more numerous in Ireland, where we have no reason to think that people ever were, and all in that kingdom, as well as in Scotland, stand near parochial or cathedral churches, or churches of some consideration, it seems a more probable conjecture that they were erected in the earliest ages of Christianity, before the introduction of bells (which were first invented or made use of in the 6th or 7th century), from whence to call the people to church by the found of trumpets or horns, such having been found near several in Ireland. That at Ardmore has since been used as a belfry; and Mr. Smith describes two channels cut in the door fill, to let the rope out, the ringer standing below the door, on the outside: in which manner the bells are still rung at Kelso in Scotland, and at the cathedral of Kildare, unless it be objected that this last may only prove its application as a belfry since it was first built.