Volunteer Tower — Bunowen More

Situated close towards the northern edge of the summit of Bunowen (Doon) Hill (65m OD), a distinctive bare oval-shaped hill at the N side of Bunowen Bay. The hilltop setting consists of unenclosed pastureland. The surrounding landscape consists of a mixture of pasture enclosed by drystone field walls, with sand dunes and a coastal plain located to the S. The signal tower has unobstructed views in all directions. Located c. 245m NW of the coastline at the nearest point (Bunowen Bay). The signal tower (GA076-006----) at Ard Castle Hill, located c. 19.9kms to the SE, has been demolished and can no longer be seen from this location. The signal tower (GA0009-007----) at Cleggan Hill, located c. 17.2kms to the N, now survives as a low ruin and can no longer be seen from this location. The site of this ruinous signal tower at Bunowen is located c. 164m W of the site of a medieval parish church (MA049-014----) and c. 242m E\ESE of a holy well (GA049-001----) at Aillebrack, which is indicated on the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map (surveyed c. 1837-8) as 'Well of the Seven Daughters'. The fragmentary remains of an early nineteenth-century (c. 1806) originally two-storey square-plan signal tower (int. dims. c. 4.25m NW-SE x 4.25m NE-SW; max wall H 0.3m), built with randomly coursed rubble stone masonry. The signal tower has been largely demolished and the masonry has been removed from the site for use elsewhere. The surviving part of the tower consists of two grassed-over sections of walling forming a right angle to the NE corner of the former signal tower site, inside of which there is a shallow hollow\depression. The walls are aligned NW-SE (L 6.2m; Wth 1.4m; max H 0.3m), and NE-SW (L 6.0m; Wth c. 2.0m; max H 0.3m) respectively. Intact sections of stonework are visible on the internal edges of the walls, while the grassed over external edges simply slope gently downwards suggesting a base batter. The hollow area (max D c. 0.2m) is triangular in shape, running from the E end of the NW-SE wall to the W end of the NE-SW wall. The site of the signal tower are not surrounded by a rubble spread, indicating that this material was removed from the site and used elsewhere for the construction of buildings and\or field walls etc. The remains of a small rectangular building (GA049-017003-) are located 23m NW of the signal tower. The remains of the structure consist of a few short sections of rubble stone walling that mark one corner of a building, and the reveals of an internally splayed window opening. This structure is seemingly the remains of a ‘folly’ apparently erected by the Geoghegan (later O’Neill) family of nearby Bunowen Castle (GA049-013----), a ruinous castellated former country house, located c. 325m to the NE. This folly was probably built during the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, a period when many such structures were erected on country estates throughout Ireland. A lime kiln is indicated c. 65m to the NE of the remains of the signal tower on the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map (surveyed c. 1837-8); this site was not investigated. A World War II-era lookout post (LOP 53) is located 22m W of the site of the signal tower and, unusually for its type, it is surrounded by a low rubble stone walled enclosure (possibly using masonry from the demolished\collapsed signal tower). Approximately 6m S of the lookout post is a well-defined number ‘53’ sign marked out on the hillside in rubble stone; this is all that remains visible today of the ‘Eire 53’ that also dates from the World War II period (Kennedy 2008). 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 Uploaded on: 08/07/22 Images: GA049-017002-.01 View of site looking N GA049-017002-.02 Foundation of the signal tower looking NE towards Bunowen Castle GA049-017002-.03 Plan of site GA049-017002-.04 View of ‘folly’ to the NW, view from S GA049-017002-.05 View of ‘folly’ to the NW, view from N towards lookout post GA049-017002-.06 Lookout post; view looking S GA049-017002-.07 Lookout post; view looking SE GA049-017002-.08 ‘53’ sign and lookout post; view from the SE