Telegraph (in ruins) — Kilbaha North

Situated on the ridge line of a prominent hill overlooking the coastline, which is located c. 455m to the NW (c. 84m OD). Located on flat ground on top of the ridge with gentle slopes to the NW and SE. The surrounding area consists of enclosed pasture and arable fields to the SE, E and S, defined by linear rubble stone walls and earthen banks, and by unenclosed rough pasture to the NW, SW and W. The adjacent towers in the signal tower chain are found at Knocknagharoon (CL065-006----), located c. 12.4kms to the NE but now demolished, and at Kerry Head (KE013-036----), County Kerry, located c. 16.6kms to the S across the Shannon Estuary, now also demolished. Site of signal tower at Loop Head is located c. 1.4kms NE of a coastal promontory fort (CL071-004----) located at Bullaunaleama, Kilbaha North, and c. 2.2 kms NNW from another coastal promontory fort (CL071-014----) at Dunmore Head, Horse Island, located at the north side of the Shannon Estuary. The site of an early nineteenth-century (c. 1804-5) originally two-storey square-plan signal tower (approx. ext. dims. 5.85m NE-SW x 5.85m NW-SE), built with roughly coursed rubble. The signal tower has collapsed or been demolished, and the stone has been removed from the site for use elsewhere. Kerrigan established that the signal tower was completed by 1805 (Kerrigan 1995, 278). The Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1840-2, shows a small rectangular building indicated within a ringfort (CL071-012---). A trigonometry point is shown to the NE of the signal tower, and a small circular feature to the N of the signal tower, in the centre of the ringfort, may denote the location of the signal mast. The Ordnance Survey second and third ed. six-inch maps, surveyed 1893-7 and 1913-8 respectively, simply show the ringfort with no additional features to this site, suggesting that the signal tower was demolished at an early date. The location of the signal tower can be seen on aerial photographs, visible as a square-shaped hollow (ext. dims c. 8m N-S x c. 8m E-W; int. dims c. 6m E-W x c. 5.5m N-S; D c. 0.7 to c. 1.0m) immediately S of the centre of the ringfort. The outline of a rectangular enclosure (c. 57m NW-SE x 32m NE-SW) defined by grassed banks can also be seen on aerial photographs, overlying the central and NW parts of the ringfort, and extending a little beyond its NW edge. The absence of the enclosure from the early Ordnance Survey maps also suggests that the site was thoroughly cleared in the early-nineteenth century. The signal tower was part of a system of over 80 signal stations constructed by the British Board of Ordnance in the first decade of the nineteenth century to warn of the approach of a French invasion fleet. Signalling between sites was accomplished using a naval signal post. The system formed a continuous chain from Dublin Bay running clockwise all the way around the coast to Malin Head in County Donegal. It was abandoned by the mid-1810s when the threat of a French invasion diminished (Kerrigan 1995, 157-66). Compiled by: Stuart Rathbone Uploaded on: 14/07/22