Malin Beg Signal Tower

Situated close to steep cliffs on ground that slopes down gently to the NE (35m OD). Located on a level area with a shallow depression surrounding the signal tower that is often filled with water that can also fill the interior. Site located c. 95m to the E of the nearest point of the coastline with a rocky trough located c.40m to the W. The local area consists of rough enclosed pasture defined by low stone walls forming long thin fields running SW-NE. The site has unobstructed views in all directions. It was originally built to be intervisible with the signal tower at Glen Head (DG089-034-----), which is located c. 7.6kms to the NNE, and is clearly visible from this site in clear weather; and the tower at Carrigan Head (DG096-046----), which is located c. 8.7kms to the SE, and is also visible in clear weather. Site located c. 218m S\SSW of an early church site known as ‘Templecavan’ (DG089-014001-) at Malin Beg\Málainn Beg. Site originally accessed by a long laneway from the NE running to Malin Beg\Málainn Beg village, now overgrown. An early nineteenth-century two-storey square-plan signal tower, built with roughly coursed rubble (ext. dims. 5.9m NW-SE x 5.9m SW-NE; H 11.45m). The well-preserved signal tower survives to its full height. The signal tower is positioned with its walls facing NE, SE, SW and NW. The SW wall features a square-headed doorway first floor level that would have been accessed via a retractable ladder. This doorway retains its cut limestone block-and-start surround with keystone to the lintel. The door is protected by a complete machicolation, supported by three cut stone corbels. The NW and SE walls feature pairs of square-headed window openings at ground floor and first floor levels. The majority of the window openings retain cut limestone surrounds with projecting keystones to the lintels. The window opening at first floor level to the NW elevation was lowered at some stage. The S ground floor window on the SE wall has been opened up to form a crude ground level entrance. The NE wall has a slight outwards bulge which houses the chimney flue. A well-preserved chimneystack extends upwards from the centre of the NE wall. The N and E corners are protected by intact bartizans, each supported by three cut stone corbels. The internal space consists of a semi-basement level, which is almost entirely infilled with soil, a ground floor room, a first-floor room, and a low attic level. The flat roof had been accessible from the attic level, and a parapet wall had protected the edge of the roof and connected to the bartizans and the machicolations. The top of the parapet wall features a largely complete set of coping stones, which extend around the bartizans and the machicolation over the door. The floors and the roof of the building had been wooden and were carried in the thickness of the wall. No parts of the floors or the roof have survived, but rows of joist-holes indicate their former positions. The NE wall features central fireplaces flanked by alcoves on the ground floor and first floor levels. A small alcove was built into the attic level of the north east wall. A square sectioned internal drainage channel runs down the N corner of the building. This is believed to have brought rainwater from the roof to storage barrels in the semi-basement. The signal tower was heavily modified at some point. Both first floor windows on the SE side and the N window on the NW wall have been neatly reduced in height, and the spaces above the reduced height windows are infilled with stonework. The S window on the NW wall was simply infilled with stonework. The first floor doorway has also been reduced in height. The lower two thirds of the reduced height doorway have subsequently been blocked with coursed stonework. The grassed-over rubble stone foundations of a hut site (ext. dims. 9.15m E-W x 8.5m N-S; int. dims. 3.3m E-W x 3.1m N-S; wall Wth c. 2.7m, H 0.4m) is located immediately W of the signal tower. It is not clear if this hut foundation belongs to a building that was in use at the same time as the signal tower, or if it pre-dates or post-dates the signal 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 19th 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 and T.J. O'Meara Uploaded on 01\09\21 Images: DG089-034----.01.jpg Oblique view from S DG089-034----.02.jpg Oblique view from E DG089-034----.03.jpg Oblique view from N DG089-034----.04.jpg NE elevation DG089-034----.05.jpg SE elevation DG089-034----.06.jpg SW elevation DG089-034----.07.jpg NW elevation DG089-034----.08.jpg Oblique view from W DG089-034----.09.jpg NE interior 1 DG089-034----.010.jpg NE interior 2 DG089-034----.011.jpg Hut foundation