Carrigan Head Tower — Cruachlann (tc Gleann Cholm Cille)

Situated on a rocky promontory (227m OD) with steeply rising ground to the N and steep cliffs to the S. Located at the rear of a small natural terrace, with a small level area to the S. Site located c. 75m SSE of the coastline at its nearest point, and c. 145m N of the tip of Carrigan Head. The surrounding area is unenclosed rough and rocky pasture. The signal tower has unobstructed views to the E, S and W, but the views to the N and NE are blocked by the rising ground. It was originally built to be intervisible with the signal tower at Malin Beg\ Málainn Beg (DG089-034-----), which is located c. 8.7kms to the NW, and is visible in clear weather; and with the site of the signal tower at St John’s Point Signal Tower (DG097A020----), which was located c. 16.7kms to the SE\ESE, and has been demolished, and is no longer visible from this site. This signal tower at Carrigan Head is located within or adjacent to a promontory fort (DG096-043----). A nineteenth-century two-storey square-plan signal tower built with roughly coursed and squared sandstone rubble (ext. dims. 5.9m NW-SE x 5.9m NE-SW; H 11.66m). The well-preserved signal tower is positioned with its walls facing NE, SE, SW and NW. The signal tower has survived to its full height, apart from the uppermost parts of the W corner, which have collapsed. The signal tower is constructed within a deep but narrow terrace that has been cut into the steeply sloping ground to the NE. The SW elevation features a square-headed doorway at first floor level that would have been originally accessed via a retractable ladder. This doorway retains a cut limestone lintel with central projecting keystone but the surround is gone elsewhere. The doorway is protected by a largely complete machicolation, supported by three cut sandstone corbels. The NW and SE elevations feature pairs of square-headed window openings on the ground floor and the first floor levels. The ground floor windows are noticeably smaller than the ground floor windows recorded at most other signal towers. The windows at first floor level to the SE elevation retain cut stone surrounds and lintels with projecting keystones. The NW wall features a slight outwards bulge, which houses the chimney flues, and a well-preserved chimneystack extends over the centre of the wall. The chimneystack consisted of two ‘tall’ courses of stonework at the bottom, a projecting stringcourse, and then two shorter courses of stonework above the stringcourse. A series of small ‘jagged’ triangular stones have been set point upwards into a mortar cap to the chimneystack. The N and E corners of the signal tower are protected by mostly intact bartizans, each supported by three cut stone corbels. Coping stones are present around the top of the parapet wall, the bartizans and the machicolation, except at the W corner where the upper part of the tower has begun to collapse. The interior of the tower is not accessible from ground level, but looking through the windows into the interior reveals that the NW wall features fireplaces flanked by alcoves on the ground floor and first floor levels, and that the signal tower had a low attic level between the first floor and the roof. Traces of a rectangular enclosure are located immediately NE of the signal tower. The enclosure is defined by low, grassed-over, collapsed stone walls (int. dims. 26m NW-SE x 10.7m NE-SW). Within the enclosure are various sections of low, grassed-over stone walls which do not resolve into obvious patterns. These fragments of walls may have belonged to small buildings that were used during or before the occupation of the signal tower. The location of the rectangular enclosure adjacent to the signal tower, rather than enclosing the signal tower is unusual, although the same arrangement may have been used at St John’s Point Signal Tower to the SE. To the SW of the signal tower there is a World War 2-era Look Out Post (L.O.P. 71) that is in a ruinous state. It consists of collapsed low concrete walls and a concrete slab foundation that is surrounded and overlain by a spread of concrete wall fragments. 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: DG096-046----.01.jpg Oblique view from E DG096-046----.02.jpg Oblique view from S DG096-046----.03.jpg Oblique view from W DG096-046----.04.jpg NW elevation DG096-046----.05.jpg NE elevation DG096-046----.06.jpg SE elevation DG096-046----.07.jpg SW elevation DG096-046----.08.jpg Oblique view from W DG096-046----.09.jpg Site overview from E DG096-046----.010.jpg Site overview from NE DG096-046----.011.jpg Site overview from N DG096-046----.012.jpg Remains of Lookout Post to site