Signal Tower (in ruins) — Knock (carbery West (w.d) By.)

Situated close to the summit of a wide low hill c. 1.3km NW of the coastline at its closest point (OD c. 110.5m). Located on flat ground the slopes gently away from the site in all directions. A large modern bungalow with a courtyard-plan has been constructed adjoining the original structure to the W and NW, and the former signal station\tower is now partially in use as a dwelling. The surrounding area consists of enclosed pasture and enclosed rough pastureland defined by generally linear field boundaries. The adjacent stations in the signal tower\station chain are found at Brow Head (CO152-002----), located c. 12.55kms to the WSW, which survives to its full height, and at Glen East\Gleann Oirtheach (CO153-022002-), located c. 12kms to the SE to the E side of Clear Island\Cléire, which also survives to its full original height. This signal station\tower at Knock is located c. 1.2kms NNE of a battery (CO148-026002-) at Leamcon, and c. ENE of a church (148-007003-) set in a circular enclosure (CO148-007001-) at Cove to the E side of Toormore Bay. An early-nineteenth-century (c. 1804-5) originally two-storey over partial raised basement square-plan signal station\tower (ext. dims. c. 5.85m N-S x c. 5.85m E-W), built with roughly coursed rubble stone masonry. The walls of the signal tower face, N, E, S, and W. The original form of the structure is still discernible but it has been raised in height and extensively altered to accommodate modern use as a domestic dwelling. The exterior is now cement rendered but was originally lime rendered with weather-slating. The original square-headed doorway is located to the S elevation at first floor level; this would have been originally accessed via a retractable ladder. The doorway has been altered and has modern fittings. Doorway now served by a modern flight of concrete steps giving access to a modern rubble stone balcony\bartizan supported on modern rubble stone corbels. The doorway is protected by a rectangular-plan rubble stone machicolation over supported on three squared rubble stone corbels. This machicolation has been increased in height and now has a modern glazed screen over. There are rubble stone bartizans to the NE and NW corners supported on rubble stone corbels; these bartizans have been increased in height and now also have modern glazed screens\windows over. The E and W elevation features the original pairs of square-headed window openings at ground and first floor levels, which now contain modern fittings. A modern square-headed window opening has been added at semi-basement level to the E elevation and to the centre of the W elevation above openings at first floor level that extends into the original parapet level of the original structure. Modern addition attached to the W, N and NW. Kerrigan established that the signal mast had been erected and the signal tower completed by 1805 (Kerrigan 1995, 277). Hamilton’s 1806 map shows the signal tower located in a narrow rectangular enclosure that splays outwards to the S end (Kerrigan 2003, 37). The Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1841-2, depicts the signal tower set within a narrow sub-rectangular enclosure (ext. dims c. 50m N-S x c. 23m E-W) that was surrounded by a larger square-plan enclosure (ext. dims c. 90m N-S x 88m E-W). A small rectangular building is depicted to the E of the signal station\tower at this time. The Ordnance Survey second ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1897-1904, shows that the inner enclosure and the small rectangular building had been removed by this time. The boundaries of the garden surrounding the modern dwelling appear to largely follow the line of the large square enclosure as depicted on the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map. 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: 21/09/22