Signal tower

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on an area of level terrain ground with low rocky sea cliffs located at coastline adjacent (c. 30m) to the E, and c. 100m NW\NNW of the Tip of Mizen Head. The level terrain rises very gradually inland to the W offering unobstructed views in all directions. The surrounding area is characterised by pastureland and rough pastureland, defined by generally linear field boundaries (some of which have been cleared in recent times in the area immediately surrounding this site) with an extensive area of rough sandy ground to the SW after c. 500m that is now in use as a golf course. The adjacent signal station\towers in the signal station chain were located at Kilmichael Point, Wicklow (WX007B003----), which was located c. 14.9kms to the SSW, where a fragment of the signal station structure may survive as a ruin, and at Wicklow Head (WI031-112001-), located c.12.25kms to the NNE, where the signal crew was apparently accommodated at the existing lighthouse to site (NIAH Reg. No. 16403102), which is visible from this site in good weather. The site of this signal station at Mizen Head, Wicklow, was located c. 3.35kms NE\ENE of a church site (WI041-002001-) and an associated graveyard (WI041-002002-) at Ennereilly, and c. 6.65kms ESE of another church site (WI035-021----) located just to the SE of the small village of Redcross.

The signal station at has Mizen Head has been demolished and few details about the site, other than its location, are known. Kerrigan established that the signal tower had likely been completed at the site by late 1804, and that the signal mast had also been erected (Kerrigan 1995, 276). The site is shown on the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1838, as a simple unenclosed tower marked as ‘Mizen Head Tower (in ruins)’. It is not clear when the ruins were cleared, but the signal tower remains visible on the Ordnance Survey second ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1885-7, and on the Ordnance Survey third ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1908-9, where it is marked as ‘in ruins’. The NMS noted that little was visible when the site was surveyed in 1990, beyond an area of rough ground. Recent aerial photography of the site (2015) appears to indicated a sub-rectangular enclosure (ext. dims. c. 37m N-S x c. 30m E-W) defined by feint boundaries of uncertain date; the site of the signal station is located towards the S of this enclosure.

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 Malin Head in Donegal to Dublin Bay. It was abandoned by the mid-1810s when the treat of a French invasion diminished (Kerrigan 1995, 157-66).

Compiled by: Stuart Rathbone

Uploaded and updated on: 07/10/22

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