Martello Tower — Glasthule

Glasthule Martello Tower No. 12 (Kerrigan 1995, 170) and battery No. 12 (DU023-073----) 160m to N. According to Kerrigan (1995, 168) construction of the Dublin area Martello Towers and their batteries commenced in 1804 under the supervision of Colonel Benjamin Fisher of the Royal Engineers and by December 1805 all towers were armed and complete. Kerrigan (ibid., 170) recorded that; ‘The towers and batteries south of Dublin are numbered from 1 to 16, but there were only fourteen towers, as at two locations there were batteries only, while several of the towers were close to adjacent batteries’. Situated to the SE of People's Park and to the NW of Martello Avenue in an urban area. The site of a martello tower W of the Railway Line. It was demolished c. 1860. No visible trace remains (Turner 1983, 93). Described by Kerrigan (1995, 173-4) as; 'Tower and battery no. 12 were sited just over half a mile to the west of Sandycove, and are depicted on early nineteenth-century maps of the district; the tower was located in the area now occupied by the People's Park. The three-gun battery [DU023-073----] was some 200 yards to the north, overlooking the rocky shoreline just to the east of the present swimming pool. A plan of 1842 depicts the three traversing platform rails behind a broad parapet, linked by two flank walls to a building at the rear. Tower no. 12 is shown in the cartouche of Duncan's map of Co. Dublin of 1821 with the battery in the background; tower and battery are each provided with a flagstaff flying a large Union flag'. See attached Taylor's 1816 Map showing the location of the Martello Tower and Battery (DU023-073----). Taylor, J. 1816 Taylor's map of the environs of Dublin: extending 10 to 14 miles from the castle, by actual survey, on a scale of 2 inches to one mile. Compiled by: Geraldine Stout and Padraig Clancy Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 23 January 2023