Signal tower

The National Monuments Service's description

The signal tower at Bloody Foreland has been demolished and no traces of the site are now visible above ground. The position is known from the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map, surveyed 1834-6, where it is marked as ‘Signal Tower.’ It was situated on ground that slopes down gently to the N and to the W, where the coastline consists of low steep cliffs. The site of the signal tower (60m OD) is located within a wide area of unenclosed rough pasture land that slopes gently down to the coast c. 200m to W. It was built to be intervisible with the signal tower at Horn Head (DG015-042----), now ruinous, which is located c. 22kms to the ENE and is no longer visible from this site; and with the signal tower at Mullaghderg Hill (DG041-014----), located c. 14.2kms to the SSW, which is still visible from this site in clear weather. Site lies c. 400m to the W of a coastal promontory fort (DG023-004----).

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

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 ‘The Construction, Survival and use of Signal Defensible Guard Houses in Connacht and Ulster’; unpublished PhD Thesis, Institute of Technology, Sligo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