Battery — Glasthule

Martello Tower and Battery No. 12 (Kerrigan 1995, 170). 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. Annotated 'Battery' on the 1837 ed. OSi 6-inch map where it is shown standing 140m N of the Martello Tower No.12 (DU023-017----) and S of the Royal Victoria Baths. On this map the Battery is depicted as a roughly rectangular shaped area enclosed by a wall with narrow rectangular-shaped building on the W side of the Battery. The recently restored Baths at Dun Laoghaire are depicted standing on the site of the 'Battery' on the 1863 ed. OSi 6-inch map. Today there are no surface remains visible of Battery No. 12 at Glasthule. The tower and battery at Glasthule was armed with three 24 pounder guns and one 18 pounder gun (Kerrigan 1995, 170). In 1802 Admiral James Hawkins-Whitshed had been appointed the naval adviser to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with orders to make arrangements for the defence of the Irish coast and to organise the sea defences of the coastline which included the construction of the Martello Towers and the batteries along the shoreline of the east coast of Ireland during the Napoleonic Wars of 1803-15. In 1803 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Sea Fencibles [naval defence] in Ireland. Admiral Whitshed advised Lord (William) Cathcart, Commander in Chief in Ireland (1803-05), on the siting of the Martello towers. In 1804 the commander of the forces was authorised by the Chief Secretary to secure those parts of the coast between Drogheda and Wexford from an enemy landing. In September of that year, construction works commenced on the Martello towers and batteries defending Dublin Bay under the command of Royal Engineer, Lieutenant-Colonel Benjamin Fisher (Clements 2011, 71). By the end of 1806 the Dublin Martello Towers, of which their were 26 and their batteries had been completed (ibid. 72). In 1842 a Letter from Mr. Henry R. Paine, Secretary to the Board of Works, expressed the wishes of the Commissioners of Kingstown Harbour to purchase a Piece of Ordnance Land at Glasthule, with the Battery thereon, on certain Conditions' (Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons, Volume 50, 1843). In this year the Commissioners wrote that; 'By some oversight, there has been an omission in applying to the Ordnance for a small portion of ground where the tramway crosses an Ordnance boundary, adjoining a small battery, No. 12, or Glasthule. The object of this communication is to request the Master-General and Board to be pleased to allow this little portion of land to be made over to the Harbour Commissioners' (ibid. 21). This letter went on to state that; 'The Commissioners beg at the same time to suggest, that as this battery is in a state of complete dilapidation; that from its position (as shown in Plan No. 2), it is clear that it will never be used again as a means of defence, while such very superior situations are available on either side, as the heads of the piers and Sandy Cove Point; and us it is rather a obstruction, the Board might perhaps not be averse to disposing of the entire property to the Commissioners'. See attached Taylor's Map showing the location of the Battery and the Martello Tower. 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. Clements, B. 2011 Martello Towers Worldwide. England. Pen & Sword Military. Compiled: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 20 January 2023