Signal tower

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a small promontory with near-vertical cliffs to the NW, NE and SE. Site marked by rocky terrain covered with areas of scrubland. The signal station at Fanad Head has been demolished (before 1815), and the location is now occupied by a lighthouse complex (15m OD; NIAH 4090901) that was constructed in 1886 and expanded in 1906. This lighthouse complex replaced an earlier lighthouse constructed 1815-7, which is depicted on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey Map (surveyed 1834-6). The probable site of the signal tower is located within a promontory fort (DG009-011----). This signal tower was original built to be intervisible from the signal towers at Malin Head (DG001-006----), located 19.6kms to the NE, and with the signal tower at Melmore Head (DG008-027----), now ruinous, which is located 10.1kms to the WSW.

A set of contemporary illustrations of the site by Sir William Smith (dated between 1804 and 1812) show that the signal tower followed the standard design signal tower (square-plan, two-storey H), and was accompanied by two single-storey gable-roofed buildings; one to the NW of the signal tower and one to the E of the signal tower. The signal tower was constructed with the doorway at first floor level to the NE, paired square-headed window openings to the NW and SE elevations at ground and first floor levels, and a tall chimneystack to the centre of the SW elevation. The signal tower had a machicolation over the first floor doorway on the NE wall and bartizans to the W and S corners. A parapet wall connected with the machicolation and the bartizans. Gun loops are shown on the parapet wall on either side of the chimneystack and on the outward facing sides of the bartizans. A signal mast was located to the NW of the signal tower.

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 19th 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: 13/08/21

Images:
DG009-012----.01 View of site of Signal Tower from the W

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