battery

Embedded three-stage military battery, built 1908, with paired flanking first-stage five-bay underground entrances, circular gun emplacements to third-stage, five-bay building to second-stage, outbuilding to rear (east) and gun barricade to side (south). Flat concrete roofs. Rendered and red brick walls with recesses throughout and several flights of stairs. Square-headed and camber-headed openings with concrete sills. Square-headed door openings. Circular gun emplacement to side (north). Surrounded by earth embankments.

This defensive feature is typical of batteries constructed on Bere Island at the beginning of the twentieth century. Distinctive elements of this particular battery include the circular gun emplacements. The discreet positioning of the battery in the landscape allows it to be unobtrusive. Bere Island was recognized as being of great strategic importance following an attempted French invasion of Ireland in 1796. The British built four Martello Towers and a signal tower on the island, as part of a chain of defence along the coast, in anticipation of any further attempts. In 1898 the east end of the island was compulsory purchased by the War Department and fortifications were built to protect British Dreadnoughts when they were in port. Accommodation for officers and men, along with store houses and other ancillary buildings were also constructed at this time. Additional works were undertaken in the first part of the twentieth century. Under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, the deep water port at Bere Island, along with those at Cobh and Lough Swilly remained in British control until 1938.