Historic Buildings Record · Northern Ireland
Marconi Blocks
Ballycarry, Causeway Coast and Glens, Northern Ireland
The record
- Designation
- Record only (not listed)
- Grade
- Record Only
- Type
- Walling
- Date of construction
- 1900 - 1919
- Address
- Marconi Blocks, East Lighthouse, Rathlin Island, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, BT54 6RT
- Townland
- Ballycarry
- Council
- Causeway Coast and Glens
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Coordinates
- 55.30093, -6.17030
- Date of survey
- 28 July 2016
- HB reference
- HB05/16/010 E
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1881 "Ireland to Illustrate the Military Condition of the Country." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
The Department's description
Exterior description and setting
Just outside the lighthouse grounds, in the plot immediately S of the two-storey houses, are three concrete blocks set into the ground. (HB05/16/010E) They appear to have been anchor stays for a mast erected by Lloyds of London, the shipping insurers. The mast was associated with a watch house from which transatlantic shipping was observed. This intelligence was then wirelessly communicated to Lloyd's London headquarters.
Block 1 is 13m S of the gated entrance to the lighthouse grounds (at grid D16167 51928), block 2 is 24m beyond that (D16178 51906), and block 3 a further 35m on (D16199 51878). All are c.60cm x 60cm in plan and originally had 'LLOYDS' cast into their tops. All are now weathered to such an extent that only 'LOY' is readable on block 1 and 'LLOYD' on block 2; block 3 is indecipherable.
Historical information
On 6 July 1898, George Kemp and Edward Glanville, assistants to the Guglielmo Marconi, demonstrated the latter's invention of wireless telegraphy to officials from Lloyds of London, the shipping insurers. A Morse signal was successfully transmitted wirelessly from an aerial strung from the East Light (HB05/16/010A) tower and picked up by a receiving mast in Ballycastle. Lloyds subsequently built a signal station (watch house and mast) on a plot beside the lighthouse. .
Criteria for listing: architectural interest
K. Group value
Criteria for listing: historic interest
Not listed
Nearby in the register
- Semidetached lightkeepers' housesLight House/ Navigation Markunder 1 mi
- Semidetached lightkeepers' housesLight House/ Navigation Markunder 1 mi
- Lightkeeper's houseLight House/ Navigation Markunder 1 mi
- Lighthouse, fog signal buildings and structuresLight House/ Navigation Markunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.