What is recorded here

One chamber held powder, one perhaps tools, one maybe a man waiting for a ship that never came. The cannon room sat above them all, turning its barrel through the groove like a slow animal watching the water. Build a tower to keep strangers out and you must also keep the tower from eating you alive. That is the bargain Martello still makes on Rosslague, a small violent room set into the sky, demanding company or surrender.

On N shoreline of Great Island, on high point of Rosslague promontory. Well-preserved circular tower (diam. 15.3m) with flattened profile to NE and SW; faced on outside with coursed limestone ashlar, on inside with brick. Entered by door with rounded arch at 1st floor level to S; spiral stone staircase on E side of doorway gives access to ground floor and roof. Ground floor divided radially into four compartments around a central circular area. Barrel-vault of brick over room to NW which was magazine. Wooden floor above survives; 1st floor divided into two compartments by brick wall; each room lit by window with round arch, flanked by fireplace. At roof level six-pronged support for pivot on which traversing platform, carrying the cannon, rested is preserved on raised central limestone plinth. Inner parapet face stepped; groove set into edge of upper step to hold iron 'racer' (Gosling 1989, 90, 141), on which wheels of traversing carriage ran. Outer wall (Wth 2.75m) slopes gently downward with an oversailing coping. Most easterly of three Martello Towers guarding northern approaches to Great Island (CO075-029---: CO075-026---) (Kerrigan 1978, 148; Enoch 1975, 27-8). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 2: East and South Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1994). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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