Signal tower

The National Monuments Service's description

The approximate site of this signal station was located close (c. 350m SSE of) to the summit of a low broad hill, and c. 1.12kms to the SW of the small village of Tagoat (OD c. 34m). It was located somewhere within the demesne grounds of Hill Castle (WX048-023001-), now demolished. The surrounding area consists of arable and pastureland, defined by generally linear field boundaries, with a number of limited wooded areas located adjacent to the S, a legacy of the former demesne at this site. The adjacent stations in the signal station chain were found at Crossfarnoge\Crossfaranogue (WX051-011----), located c. 14.65kms to the SW\WSW at Crossfarnoge Point, now demolished, and at Fort Point (WX038-007009-), which was located c. 10.9kms to the N on a tip of a sand spit at Rosslare Point, at the entrance to Wexford Harbour, where the signal crew was accommodated at a Martello tower (WX038-007002-), the site of which has now been lost to coastal erosion. The signal station was located adjacent to the tower house (WX048-023001-) that later formed part of a country house, now demolished, and a number of associated features including an impressive wide moat (WX048-023002-) that surrounds the site of the castle in a wide semi-circular arc. The probable site of the signal station is located c. 1.8kms to the WSW of a medieval church (WX048-04001-) and associated graveyard (WX048-04002-) located just to the E outskirts of Tagoat, and c. 2.6kms to the W of a tower house (WX048-033001-) located at Ballyconnor Big.

The signal station\tower Hill Castle Signal Tower has been demolished and its exact position or original form is not known. Kerrigan established that a signal station\tower had been completed at the site by 1804, and that the signal mast had been erected by 1805 (Kerrigan 1995, 276). The signal station\tower was apparently located in Hillcastle, a small townland that occupies a low hill several miles inland from the coast (nearest point of coastline c. 5kms to the ESE), an unusual location for a signal station, which tended to be established adjacent to the coastline, usually close to the tip of a peninsula. The establishment of a signal station here bypassed the need to construct a station at Carnsore Point c. 7.5kms to the SSE. The entire townland at Hillcastle seems to have been managed as a single estate, centred on a tower house, Hill Castle (WX048-023001-), which had been extended into the form of a courtyard-form country house by the time of the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map of 1839-40. The entire complex was demolished in 1960. The signal station\tower is not shown on the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1839-40, indicating it was removed at an early date. It is possible that the signal crew were accommodated at existing building(s) to site at the time with the signal mast established at a high point close by.

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 on: 05/10/22

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