Signal tower

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on the summit of a low hill c. 750m N of the coastline at its closest point (Ballyandreen Bay) and c. 6.3kms SSE of the town of Cloyne (OD c. 83m). Located on an area of level terrain with land that slopes gently away from site in all directions. The surrounding area consists of enclosed pasture and arable fields defined by linear field boundaries. The adjacent stations in the signal station\tower chain were\are located at Fort Carlisle (CO087-058---- for fortification; CO087-058001- for signal station), located c. 13.3kms to the W (now Fort Davis; exact site of station unknown), and at Knockadoon (CO078-015----), located c. 15.1kms to the ENE, which survives in relatively good condition. This signal station\tower at Ballymacotter is located c. 1.75kms SE of a church (CO089-045002-) and associated graveyard (CO089-045001-) at Churchtown (Ballintemple Parish Church) and c. 2.5kms WSW\W of a coastal promontory fort (CO089-054----) at Ballytrasna.

An early-nineteenth-century (c. 1804-5) two-storey over partial raised basement square-plan signal station\tower (ext. dims. c. 5.85m NW-SE x c. 5.85m NE-SW), built with roughly coursed rubble stone masonry. The walls of the signal tower face, NE, SE, SW, and NW. The signal tower retains its original core form but it has been heavily modified through conversion into a residence in the mid-to-late twentieth century; ground floor level of signal station\tower incorporated into accommodation, upper levels out of use (2020). The exterior walls are almost completed covered in weather-slating; it is of note that this weather-slating does not extend across the machicolation or the corner bartizans. The rear (NW) elevation is now cement rendered. Much of the cut stone coping survives to the parapet walls. The original square-headed doorway is to the centre of the SE elevation at first floor level; this would have been originally accessed via a retractable ladder. The doorway is now infilled\blocked and is now cement rendered. The doorway is protected by a rectangular-plan brick machicolation over that is supported on three rubble stone corbels. A tall rendered chimneystack extends up from the centre of the NW wall. The NE and SW elevations originally featured pairs of square-headed window openings to both the ground floor and first floor levels; window openings at first floor level now infilled and cement rendered, and a modern addition now obscures the window openings to the SW elevation at ground floor level; modern fittings to window openings at ground floor level. The N and E corners of the rear elevation (NE) feature cement rendered (brick?) bartizans each supported by three angled stone corbels. The signal tower features a flat roof protected by the parapet level wall, which is unlikely to be the original roof. Kerrigan established that the signal tower was completed in 1804 (Kerrigan 1995, 277).

The signal station\tower is shown inside a small rectangular-plan enclosure (ext. dims c. 60m NW-SE x. c. 29m SW-NE) on the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1841-2, with three smaller rectangular-plan buildings\structures sited inside the enclosure to the N of the signal station\tower at this time. The Ordnance Survey second ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1897-1904, shows that the N part of the enclosure had been removed by this time and that a larger rectangular-plan building had been constructed to the NW of the signal station\tower. The Ordnance Survey third ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1926-1937, depicts a single large rectangular-plan building aligned NW-SE to the SW of the original signal station\tower at this time. The Ordnance Survey second and third eds. six-inch maps identify the site as ‘Ballynacotter Castle.’

The signal tower was part of a system of over 80 signal stations constructed by the British Board of Ordnance in the first decade of the nineteenth century to warn of the approach of a French invasion fleet. Signalling between sites was accomplished using a naval signal post. The system formed a continuous chain from Dublin Bay running clockwise all the way around the coast to Malin Head in County Donegal. It was abandoned by the mid-1810s when the threat of a French invasion diminished (Kerrigan 1995, 157-66).

Compiled by: Stuart Rathbone

Uploaded on: 27/09/22

References

Kerrigan P.M. 1995 Castles and fortifications in Ireland 1485-1945. Cork. The Collins Press.

Rathbone, S. 2020. ‘The Construction, Survival and use of Signal Defensible Guard Houses in Connacht and Ulster’; unpublished PhD Thesis, Institute of Technology, Sligo