
What is recorded here
Freestanding single-bay two-stage lighthouse, built 1818; extant 1838, on a circular plan. "Restored", 1909. Decommissioned, 1965. Sold, 2008, to accommodate continued private residential use. Now disused. Limewashed granite ashlar battered walls on cut-granite chamfered plinth with cantilevered walkway on cut-granite thumbnail beaded corbels supporting cast-iron "Serpentine" railings centred on lantern on granite ashlar base. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite sills, and cut-granite lintels framing timber casement windows. Set in own grounds with repointed piers to perimeter having shallow pyramidal capping supporting looped wrought iron double gates.
A lighthouse erected 'by the Corporation for Improving the Port of Dublin' (Lewis 1837 I, 336), and to a design attributable to George Halpin Senior (1776-1854), Inspector of Works and Lighthouses for the Ballast Board (appointed 1810), representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century maritime built heritage of County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, one allegedly repurposing the burnt-out shell of a lighthouse built (1806-7) by John Denis Browne (1756-1809), first Marquess of Sligo (Long 1993, 153-4), confirmed by such attributes as the gently tapering silhouette; and the curvilinear iron work encircling the lantern.
This does not grant access. Most recorded buildings are privately owned; view them only from public ground unless the owner allows entry.
Places near here
Mass-rock in Ballytoohy MoreMass-rock · 989 yd
Enclosure in Ballytoohy MoreEnclosure · 1598 yd
ScalpatruceMountain / peak · 1.4 mi
Penitential station in CapnagowerPenitential station · 2.0 mi
Penitential station in StrakePenitential station · 2.3 mi
Acaill BheagIsland · 2.9 mi
Turloughbeg StrandBeach / strand · 5.8 miOther information
Photo: Colin Park · Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0