Glash Signal Tower

Freestanding single-bay two-stage signal tower, built 1804-6, on a square plan. In ruins, 1916. Roof now missing. Coursed rubble stone walls on battered base retaining fragments of lime rendered or roughcast surface finish with corbelled bartizans to corners centred on "wallhead" chimneystack (east). Paired square-headed window openings with dressings now missing. Interior in ruins with square-headed niches centred on square-headed fireplace. Set in unkempt grounds on an elevated site.

A signal tower representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century built heritage of Contae Mhaigh Eo [County Mayo] with the architectural value of the composition, one adhering to a standard prototype used for contemporary signal towers in County Cork (see 20912601) and County Donegal (see 40908001), confirmed by such attributes as the compact square plan form; the construction in unrefined local fieldstone displaying a battered silhouette; the uniform proportions of the openings on each floor; and the neo-medieval bartizans marking the roofline. NOTE: Fears of a French invasion during the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15), a realistic prospect following the successful landing by General John Joseph Amable Humbert (1767-1823) at Kilcummin Head (1798), spurred the improvement of defences along the coastline of Ireland. Glash Signal Tower was erected as one of a chain of signal towers stretching along the entire west coast from County Donegal in the north to County Cork in the south: each signal tower was built to a standard design but with some minor regional variations. The chain worked on a signalling system whereby messages – flags hoisted on masts – could be transmitted from one signal tower to its neighbour to quickly raise the alarm if an enemy fleet or vessel was in sight. However, the misty climate impeded the signal system and, the threat of invasion having abated following the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), the signal towers were quickly abandoned and allowed to fall into ruin. County Mayo once boasted eight signal towers but, following the partial collapse of Shivel Head Signal Tower during a storm (1989), only Glash Signal Tower survives largely intact.