Signal tower in Islandhubbock

The exact site of this former signal station\tower is not known but it was sited close to this point at Ballyvoyle Head (OD c. 74m). It was located c. 100m N\NNE of the tip of Ballyvoyle Head and c. 30m NW of the coastline at its closest point where there are steep sea cliffs. The surrounding area is characterised by generally level terrain the gently rises to the N and NW, and consists of enclosed pasture and arable land to N and W enclosed by linear field boundaries; limited areas of rough ground located a short distance to the S, SW and to the E immediately adjacent to the coastline. The adjacent stations in the signal station\tower chain were located at Monagoush, Mine Head (WA039-040----), located c. 10.2kms to the WSW\SW, now demolished, and at Ballynarrid, Bunmahon Head (WA024-126---), located c. 8.2kms to the ENE, now also demolished. The site of this former signal station at Mine Head is located adjacent to the N of a coastal promontory fort (WA032-047----) located on the tip of Ballyvoyle Head, and c. 3.4kms SW of medieval church (WA032-012001-), with an associated graveyard (WA032-012002-), located just to the WSW (c. 180m) of the centre of the small town\village of Stradbally. The signal station\tower at Ballyvoyle Head has been demolished and its exact position or original form is not known. The signal station\tower was demolished at an early stage, and it is not depicted on the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1839-41. Kerrigan established that the signal tower and a signal mast had been erected by 1805 (Kerrigan 1995, 277). Larkin’s 1818 map of County Waterford shows the signal tower, marked ‘Telegraph,’ in the approximate location where an ‘orphaned’ trigonometry point is marked on Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, which is depicted adjacent to the W\WSW (c. 50m) of a large L-shaped building; it is possible that the signal station crew were accommodated at this building with the signal mast located adjacent. This building was demolished by the time of the Ordnance Survey twenty-five inch map, c. 1901. It is not known if the signal station\tower was enclosed or unenclosed (there is no indication of an enclosure on any of the Ordnance Survey maps of the site). It is notable that the majority of the signal stations\towers (5 out of the 6 that were built c. 1804-5) in Waterford were demolished by the time of the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map series, which is in contrast to the situation for the signal stations in other counties along the Irish coastline. There were concerns expressed (in writing) in 1811 by a Mr. Pope, Waterford Agent of the London Assurance Company, that the disused signal station\towers along the Waterford coastline were causing confusion for seafarers who were mistaking these for lighthouses (particularly Hook Head, Wexford) in poor weather, which led to a number of shipwrecks along the Waterford coastline (around Tramore in particular) in c. 1810. These concerns were apparently acted upon with the demolition of a signal station somewhere close to Tramore (probably at Brownstown Head; WA026-098----) by the end of 1811. Perhaps other signal stations in Waterford were also demolished for the same reasons around this time. 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 nineteenth 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: 03/10/22