Signal tower

The National Monuments Service's description

This signal station\tower (now demolished) was located c. 280m WNW from the tip of a rugged sandy peninsula (c. 2020) that has a number of small islands located just offshore from the mainland (OD c. 57m). The surrounding area is characterised by generally level terrain with an eroding, gradually-sloping sandy coastline located adjacent to the S (c. 20m). The surrounding area consists of enclosed pastureland to the N characterised by linear field boundaries with a short dynamic area of sand dunes\eroding sandy cliff faces located adjacent to the S and SE. The adjacent stations in the signal station\tower chain were located at Ballynarrid, Bunmahon Head (WA024-126----), located c. 11kms to the W, now demolished, and at Brownstown Head (WA026-098----), located c. 7.8kms to the E, now also demolished. The site of this signal station at Islandikane is located adjacent (c. 200m WNW of) to a coastal promontory fort located at Sheep Island (WA026-036001-), part of which survives to the mainland and part of which is now located on the adjacent eroding offshore island(s), and c. 780m S of the site of a medieval church (WA026-033001-) and associated graveyard (WA026-033002-), formerly the parish church of Islandikane.

The signal station\tower at Islandikane has been demolished and its original form is not known. The signal station\tower was demolished at an early stage, and it is not depicted on the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1839-41. However, the site is indicated as ‘site of Telegraph’ on this map with a rectangular-plan area outlined with hachured lines indicating its approximate location. Kerrigan established that by 1805 a signal station\tower was under construction at this site, and that the signal mast had been erected (Kerrigan 1995, 276). It is not known if the signal tower was enclosed or unenclosed (no definitive evidence for an enclosure indicated on any of the Ordnance Survey maps of the area).

It is notable that the majority of the signal stations\towers (5 out of the 6 that were built c. 1804-5) in Waterford were demolished by the time of the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map series, which is in contrast to the situation for the signal stations in other counties along the Irish coastline. There were concerns expressed (in writing) in 1811 by a Mr. Pope, Waterford Agent of the London Assurance Company, that the disused signal station\towers along the Waterford coastline were causing confusion for seafarers who were mistaking these for lighthouses (particularly Hook Head, Wexford) in poor weather, which led to a number of shipwrecks along the Waterford coastline (around Tramore in particular) in c. 1810. These concerns were apparently acted upon with the demolition of a signal station somewhere close to Tramore (probably at Brownstown Head; WA026-098----) by the end of 1811. Perhaps other signal stations in Waterford were also demolished for the same reasons around this time.

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: 03/10/22

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.