Telegraph — Reenogrena

Situated overlooking the E side of the mouth of Glandore Harbour (OD c. 79m). Site located c. 110m E of coastline at its closest point (at entrance to Glandore Harbour), and c. 140m NNW of the tip of Goat Head. Located on generally level ground that slopes gently down towards coastline to S, and gently away towards Siege Bay c. 700m to the E. The immediate surrounding area consists of enclosed and open rough pasture with enclosed pastureland located slightly further away (c. 250m) away to the E and N. Rough pastureland to the S between this site and the coastline. The adjacent stations in the signal station\tower chain are found at Ballylinchy, near Kedge Point (CO150-042----), located c. 9.4kms to the WSW, which survives to its original height (albeit later altered), and at Dunnycove, Galley Head (CO144-033001-), located c. 12.5kms to the E\ENE, where the signal station\tower now survives as a low ruin. The site of this signal station\tower at Reenogrena is located c. 660m W\WSW of a coastal promontory fort (CO143-085----) located to the W side of Siege Cove, and c. 1.9kms m S of the well-known stone circle at Drombeg (CO143-051002-). The site of an early nineteenth-century (c. 1804-5) originally two-storey over partial raised basement square-plan signal station\tower (ext. dims. c. 5.8m N-S x c. 5.8m E-W), originally built with rubble stone masonry. This signal station\tower has been demolished and the site is now occupied by a modern dwelling. The signal station\tower originally faced to the NW, SW, SE (front elevation?) and to the NE. Kerrigan established that the signal mast had been erected by 1804 and the signal tower was completed by 1805 (Kerrigan 1995, 277). Hamilton’s 1806 map shows the signal station\tower located in a narrow rectangular enclosure with a narrow fan shaped termination to the SE end (Kerrigan 2003, 37); this would have been the site of the associated signal mast. The signal station\tower is indicated on the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1841-2, as a rectangular-plan building\structure; presumably this is the signal station\tower possibly with an addition to one or both ends (NW and SE). It is indicated within a narrow rectangular-plan enclosure (ext. dims c. 60m NW-SE x. c. 16m SW-NE) that has a wider circular\fan-shaped termination (max. ext. dims c. 25m SW-NE) to the SE. A small square-plan building\structure is depicted c. 10m N of the signal station\tower, abutting the inner face of the NE boundary, at this time. The Ordnance Survey second ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1897-1904, shows only the ruins of the signal station\tower, which is indicated as square-plan roofless structure located close to the centre of the enclosure. The Ordnance Survey third ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1926-1937, shows that the ruins of the signal tower had been cleared and that the E\NE side of the enclosure had been largely been removed by this time. The signal station was part of a system of over 80 signal stations\towers 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: 22/09/22