Signal tower

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated at the end of the Mizen Peninsula, approximately 480m NE of Mizen Head (OD 138m). Located on level ground with steep slopes to the W and S that drop down to the coastline. Site located c. 170m E of coastline at its closest point. The surrounding area consists of unenclosed rough pasture with enclosed pasture, defined by irregular field boundaries, located further (after c. 350m) to the E and the SE. The adjacent stations in the signal tower\station chain are found at Sheep’s Head (CO138A001----), located c. 10.6kms to the N, where the structure survives as a low ruin, and at Brow Head (C0152-002----), which is located c. 3.75kms to the E (the closest distance between any two adjacent signal stations\towers located along the coastline of Ireland), where the well-preserved structure survives to its full height. Signal station\tower at Mizen Head located c. 425m SSE of a coastal promontory fort (CO152A006----), and c. 3.35kms SSE of a tower house (CO146-001002-) and associated bawn (CO146-001002-) at Dunlough (close to Three Castle Head).

An early nineteenth-century (c. 1804-5) three-storey square-plan signal station\tower (ext. dims. c. 5.85m NE-SW x c. 5.85m NW-SE wall T c. 0.72m), built with randomly coursed rubble stone masonry, with later modifications and additions. The signal station\tower survives to its full height (H c. 11m). Remains of lime render to the exterior and surviving sections of weather-slating survive to localised areas. The extant building is not of the standard\typical signal station\tower design. It is a tall three-storey structure with gabled walls to the NE and SW elevations, suggesting a pitched roofline as opposed to the flat roof profiles found on the majority of structures of its type, and it also does not have the corner bartizans to the rear elevation (NE) as found at other examples of its type and date. The SW gable wall features a centrally-positioned square-headed doorway at first floor level (that has been later neatly blocked\infilled with stonework), and two square-headed window openings at second floor level. The NW elevation features two square-headed window openings at both the ground floor and first floor levels, and a single square-headed window opening at second floor level. The NE gable wall features a large square-headed window opening to the SE side at second floor level, and a tall rubble stone chimneystack protrudes from the centre\gable apex. Cut stone coping survives in places over the gable walls. The SE wall features a square-headed window opening to the SW side at second floor level. Kerrigan established that the signal tower was completed in 1804 (Kerrigan 1995, 277). The signal tower bears a strong resemblance to Robert’s Head Signal Tower (CO113-015----), also in County Cork (to NE).

A single-storey addition abuts the NE side of the original building, and wraps around the SE elevation of the structure. This addition is constructed of rubble stone and has square-headed openings with concrete lintels and concrete sills to the window openings. This is the result of later modifications to alter the original signal station\tower for use as a domestic residence (during nineteenth or early twentieth century - chronology unclear). A small two-storey addition abuts the SW portion of the SE wall.
The signal tower is located in a rectangular-plan enclosure (ext. dims c. 107m NE-SW x c. 42.5m NW-SE) with a rounded end at the SW. This enclosure is defined by a now heavily-collapsed rubble stone boundary wall that is no longer extant along long sections of the perimeter.

A well-preserved Lookout Post (LOP 30), dating to the World War II-era, is located to the c. 21.5m SW of the signal station\tower in the centre of the rounded end of the original enclosure (which was the original site of the signal mast).

Hamilton’s 1806 map shows the signal station\tower located in a narrow rectangular-plan enclosure with a rounded end to the SW end (Kerrigan 2003, 37). The Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1841-2, shows an L-shaped structure(s) to site with one section running NE-SW and the second section running NW-SE, with the connection at the N end. A small freestanding structure is located to the W of the N end of the L-shaped building. The Ordnance Survey second ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1897-1904, depicts a square-plan structure with a rectangular-plan addition extending to the NE. A NW-SE rectangular-plan structure abuts the NW corner of the addition, creating an L-shaped pattern flipped 90 degrees from the earlier L-shaped building. The original narrow rectangular enclosure has been replaced by a larger rectangular-plan enclosure by this time, apparently divided into small garden plots. The Ordnance Survey third ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1926-37, depicts the same arrangement to site. Neither of these cartographic depictions matches the arrangements visible at the site today (2020).

The signal station\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: 19/09/22

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

Kerrigan, P.M. 2003 Signal towers on the West Cork coast. Mizen Journal 11, 29-45.