Signal tower

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated c. 360m WNW of the tip of the Barry’s Head peninsula (OD c. 83m). Located in an area of flat ground with steep slopes adjacent immediately to S and SW that drop down to the coastline after c. 70-80m, and to the ESE where the landscape slopes down towards the tip of Barry’s Head. The surrounding area consists of unenclosed pasture to the S with large arable fields located adjacent to the N that are defined by generally linear field boundaries. The adjacent stations in the signal station\tower chain are found at the Old Head of Kinsale (CO137-008----), located c. 13.7kms to the SW, recently renovated (c. 2015) and now open as a visitor attraction, and at Britfieldstown, Robert’s Head (CO113-015---), located c. 6.7kms to the NE, which survives in relatively good condition. The site of this signal station\tower at Barry’s Head is located c. 165m WNW of the site of Barry’s Castle (CO113-033001-), itself set within a coastal promontory fort (CO113-033002-) at the tip of Barry’s Head, and c. 2.2kms S\SSE of site of a late\post medieval church (CO112-029002-) with an associated burial ground\graveyard (CO112-029001-) located in the small village of Nohaval.

The site of an early-nineteenth-century (c. 1804-5) probably originally two-storey over partial raised basement square-plan signal station\tower (ext. dims. c. 5.8m NW-SE x c. 5.8m NE-SW). The signal station\tower at Barry’s Head has been demolished. No surface remains of the building are visible at the site but an overgrown patch of rough ground coincides with the enclosed area recorded on the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1841-2. Kerrigan established that a signal tower and mast had mast had been erected by 1805 (Kerrigan 1995, 277).

Hamilton’s 1806 map shows the signal station\tower located within a narrow rectangular enclosure with a wide fan-shaped or semi-circular bulbous termination to the SE end (Kerrigan 2003, 37). The Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1841-2, depicts the signal station\tower as being located close to the centre of a narrow rectangular enclosure (ext. dims c. 64m NW-SE x c. 40m SW-NE at widest point) with a lop-sided rounded end to the SE. The signal station\tower is not depicted on the Ordnance Survey second ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1897-1904, which suggests the site had been cleared by this time, but the surrounding enclosure is shown similar in form to that depicted on the earlier map.

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: 23/09/22

References

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

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