Signal tower

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on level ground to the immediate S of a minor road that runs E-W out of the small modern dispersed rural settlement of Creevagh (73m OD) to the E. The ground to the N of the road slopes gently down to the coast (c. 915m N at closest point) and site located c. 1.42kms W of the shores of Killala Bay. The signal tower location is within rough pasture land, and site is enclosed by a rubble stone wall. The surrounding area consists of irregular fields enclosed by rubble stone walls and consists of rough pasture. The signal tower site has unobstructed views to the N, W and E, but restricted views to the S where the ground begins to rise up. Glensky Head Signal Tower, Glinsk, (MA005-012----), located c. 21.96kms to the to the W, is now largely collapsed and cannot be seen from this site. The low remains of Lenadoon Point Signal Tower, Sligo (SL010-001002-), located c. 14.8kms to the E\ESE, are not clearly visible from the site. Rathlee Signal Tower, Sligo (SL011-025001-), located 15.7kms to the ESE, should be visible from this site by view now obscured by modern buildings in the vicinity. Signal tower at Creevagh is located c. 200m NNE of a megalithic structure (MA007-015003---) and c. 850m NW of a court tomb, both located within the Creevagh townland boundaries.

The site of an early nineteenth-century (c. 1804-6) signal tower. Originally two-storey, square in plan, and probably originally built with roughly coursed rubble stone masonry (as is seen at other nearby examples). Creevagh Signal Tower has been demolished. A small grassy mound is present in the area where the tower is depicted on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map (c. 1836); site not depicted on the 3rd edition Ordnance Survey map of c. 1910 suggesting it was demolished or collapsed by this time. The mound could consist of some of the rubble of the tower. Some modern building works (2020) occurring close to the site to immediate E.

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 17\11\21

Images:
MA007-015002-.01 View of mound on site of signal tower; looking S
MA007-015002-.02 View of mound on site of signal tower; looking W
MA007-015002-.03 Plan of site

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