Galley Head Signal Tower (1841-2) — Dunnycove

Situated on a low NE-SW running ridge c. 750m W of the coastline to the W side of Dunnycove Bay and overlooking Galley Head (c. to 5kms) to the SW (OD c. 106m). Located on flat ground with gentle slopes to the NW and SE. The surrounding area consists of a mixture of enclosed pasture and arable fields, defined by regular field boundaries. Site located c. 700m SSE of the small village of Ardfield and c. 6.7kms SSW of the town Clonakilty. The adjacent stations in the signal station\tower chain are found at Ballymacredmond, Seven Heads (CO145-008----), located c. 13.35kms to the E, which survives in good condition close to its original height, and at Reenagreva, Goat’s Head (CO143-086----), which is located c. 12.5kms to the W\NSW, but is now demolished. The signal station\tower at Dunnycove, Galley Head, is located adjacent to E (c. 170m) of the fragmentary remains of Ardfield Church (CO144-032002-; set in an associated graveyard (CO144-032002-), and c. 1.7kms NE of the remains of a tower house (CO144-034002-), indicated as ‘Dunnycove Castle’ on the Ordnance Survey first ed. map (1841-2), which, itself, is set within a coastal promontory fort (CO144-034002-) at Dunnycove Point. The remains 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; int. dims. c. 4.7m N-S x 4.3m E-W), built with rubble stone masonry. Evidence of lime render and weather-slating to exterior but only very limited sections of slating survive insitu. Only the ground floor level and fragments of the lower parts of the first floor level of the signal tower survive upstanding. The signal tower is positioned with its walls facing N, E, S, and W. The N elevation bulges out to the centre to accommodate the chimney flue, which helps to orientate and describe the probable original form of this structure: The main doorway would have been to the centre of the S elevation at first floor level with a machicolation over, there would have been pairs of square-headed window openings to the side elevations (E and W) at ground and first floor levels, and the rear (N) of the structure would have had corner bartizans (to NE and NW corners). An external stairway has been added, wrapping first around the SE corner of the signal tower and then across the S wall, where it would have accessed the now missing central doorway to the signal station\tower at first floor level. The original square-headed window openings survive to the E elevation at ground floor level, below a row of anchor bolts\pattrice plates. A ground floor entrance at the W side of the N wall is a later alteration to the building. The internal face of the N wall features a central fireplace with an alcove to the E, and the ground floor entrance to the W. A later single-story farm building\outbuilding abuts the W side of the original signal station\tower, and there is the remains of a complex of structures to the N of the site within the enclosure (see below). Kerrigan established that the signal tower and signal mast had been erected by 1805 (Kerrigan 1995, 277). The signal station\tower is positioned towards the S end of a U-shaped enclosure (ext. dims. c. 45m N-S x c. 24m E-S) that is defined by a partially collapsed rubble stone wall that is now open at the N boundary. This enclosure is wedge-shaped an increase in width towards the N. A small fan-shaped\oval protrusion (ext. dims. c. 25m N-S x c. 24m E-W) extends from the S edge of the U-shaped enclosure. This was probably the site of the signal mast. Entrance to the site is through a gateway with rubble stone gate piers to W side of enclosure. Modern single-story dwelling built to the NE of signal station\tower, within the enclosure. Hamilton’s 1806 map shows the signal tower located in a narrow rectangular enclosure with a narrow fan-shaped end (Kerrigan 2003, 37). The Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1841-2, shows the tower in the centre of a U-shaped enclosure with an oval extension to the S. The signal station\tower is shown with a complex-plan indicative of multiple additions, and four small freestanding buildings are shown to the N of the main structure, within the enclosure. A flagstaff is indicated c. 60m to the WSW at this time. The Ordnance Survey twenty-five inch map of the area, c. 1901, depicts a complex arrangement of structures attached to the N end of the signal station\tower with a detached rectangular-plan structure located a short distance to the NW built against the W side of the enclosure. A flagstaff is indicated to the centre of the oval enclosure to the S and a ‘semaphore’ c. 43m to the SE outside of the oval enclosure. A footpath is indicted on this map leading from the signal station to a now-demolished coastguard station that was located c. 365m to the ESE; this hints that this signal station\tower site may have been adapted to act as a temporary coastguard station prior to the later construction of the purpose-built coastguard station complex (probably during second half of nineteenth century), which is a situation to occurred in at least one former signal tower\station site in West Cork. Lewis (1837) records for this site ‘ … ruins of the old church are situated on the highest point of land in the parish; and near them is a building which during the war was used as a signal tower, but is now the residence of Lieut. Speck, who commands the coast-guard at Dunny Cove’, which strongly supports this suggestion. The signal station\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: 23/09/22