Promontory fort — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Bailey Fort still blocks the narrow neck of Howth Head, its deep fosses and earthen banks forming two separate lines across a tongue of land that juts into Doldrum Bay. The sea would have closed one end while the ditches closed the other, leaving a thin strip where people could be watched, waited for or held. Roads, a lighthouse and an ordinary house have since cut through that old shape, but the broad ditch and long mound remain beneath the growth, preserving the feeling of a place made to resist entry.

A long, narrow headland projects into Doldrum Bay on the southeast corner of Howth Head. It is orientated NNW-SSE. Named 'Dun Griffen' on the 1837 OS 6-inch map, its defences are often referred to as the Bailey Fort. Westropp (1922, 61-2) identified two separated lines of defence across this headland. The outer line runs along the broad neck of the headland and comprises two lines of curving fosses with interveening earthen banks (outer fosse Wth 2.3-3m; D 1.5-2m; outer bank Wth 7.5m; H 2m; ; inner bank 3.3m; H 2.5m) best preserved in the N. The S end of the defences terminates at a stream. Roads extending N-S and E-W have cut through this end of the defences. The inner line of defence spans a narrowing in the headland and comprises a broad deep fosse (Wth 9.5m; D 3.25m). A low elongated mound, orientated NE-SW lies to the W of this fosse (Morris 1939, 181). A cashel erected in the SE tip of the headland was removed during construction of the Baily lighthouse (DU016-003002-; see Stokes 1893, 451). This construction work also revealed an extensive kitchen midden discovered at the base of the cliff (DU016-003003-; see Brunicardi 1914, 189). A house has been constructed to the west of the junction of the lanneways which may have impacted on the southern quadrant of the fosses. The site is extensively overgrown. Compiled by: Geraldine Stout Updated by: Christine Baker Date of upload: 29 January 2015

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