Signal Tower — Ballyroon Mountain,ballyieragh

Situated on the crest of the ridge which runs NW-SE along the final section of the Sheep’s Head\Muntervary Peninsula, approximately 2.6kms ENE of the tip of the peninsula, and c. 540m NW of the coastline at its closest point (OD c. 235m). Located on uneven rough and rocky terrain with steep slopes to the NW and SE that drop down to the coastline. The surrounding area consists of unenclosed rough pasture with a small lake, Doo Lough, located a short distance (c. 175m) to the W and NW. The adjacent stations in the signal tower\station chain are found at Bere Island (CO128-013----), located c. 10.5kms to the NNW, which survives as low ruins, and the well-preserved site at Mizen Head (CO152A001----), which is located c. 10.6kms to the S. This signal station\tower at Sheep’s Head is located c. 8.5kms WSW of a late medieval church (CO138-015002-) with an associated burial ground (CO138-015001-) at Kilcrohane, and c. 3.5kms SW of a mid-nineteenth century mining complex (CO138-001001-) and associated miners’ settlement (CO138001002-) associated with copper mining located adjacent to the coastline of Bantry Bay at Gortavallig. The low remains of an early nineteenth-century (c. 1804-5) originally two-storey over partial basement level square-plan signal station\tower (ext. dims. c. 5.82m NE-SW x c. 5.8m NW-SE; int. dims 4.3m NE-SW x 4.25 SE-NW; wall T c. 0.78m), built with randomly coursed rubble stone masonry. The walls of the signal station\tower face NE, SE, SW, and NW. The signal tower has collapsed and all that survives is the lower courses to the base of the ground floor and partial basement levels. The base of the signal tower is surrounded by rubble, which also fills the internal space. The structure apparently collapsed c. 1990 but it was recorded as part of the Cork Archaeological Survey in 1988 when it was described as a ‘square tower… two-storey, external walls originally weatherslated. Ground floor door in S wall, 1st floor door (blocked) in W wall with machicolation overhead; bartizans on NE and SE corner. E wall thickens to central point externally to accommodate central chimney flue’. Kerrigan established that the signal mast had been erected and the signal tower completed by 1805 (Kerrigan 1995, 278). The signal station\tower is set towards the NE end of a long narrow sub-rectangular enclosure (ext. dims c. 124m NE-SW x 40m NW-SE), defined by largely collapsed rubble stone walls, which contains a smaller sub-rectangular enclosure (ext. dims c. 22.5m NE-SW x c. 26.4m NW-SE), also defined by largely collapsed rubble stone walls, that surrounds the signal station\tower. A smaller square internal enclosure is located to the S of the signal station\tower. A large irregular enclosure abuts the NE side of the long narrow sub-rectangular enclosure. Hamilton’s 1806 map shows the signal tower located in a narrow rectangular enclosure with a rounded end at the SW (Kerrigan 2003, 37). The Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1841-2, depicts a long sub-rectangular enclosure with rounded ends. The internal sub-rectangular enclosure is depicted, as is the small square enclosure immediately S of the signal station\tower. 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: 16/09/22