Signal tower in Monagoush

The exact site of this former signal station\tower is not known but it was sited adjacent to or on the site of a lighthouse (NIAH Reg. No. 22903904 ) and\or two associated lighthouse keepers’ dwellings (NIAH Reg. Nos. 22903905 and 22903906) adjacent to NW, which were built in 1851 (OD c. 73m). The former signal station was located c. 200m N of Mine Head and c. 110m NW of the coastline at its closest point. The surrounding area is characterised by generally level terrain that 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 Ram Head, Ardmore (WA040-024----), located c. 10.2kms to the WSW, which survives extant with extensive later alterations, and at Islandhubbock, Ballyvoyle Head (WA032-050----), located c. 10.2kms to the ENE\NE, now demolished. The site of this former signal station at Mine Head is located c. 495m SSW\S of a coastal; promontory fort (WA039-013----) located on a narrow peninsula ( indicated as ‘Carrig Philip’ on Ordnance Survey third ed. six-inch map), and c. 1.54kms ESE\E of the site of a castle (WA039-011----) located at Hacketstown. The signal station\tower has been demolished and its exact position and its original form is not known. The structure 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 mast was erected in 1804 and the signal tower was completed by 1806 (Kerrigan 1995, 277). Larkin’s 1818 map of County Waterford shows the signal station\tower, marked ‘Telegraph,’ located on Mine Head, a small promontory in Monagoush Townland. It is probable that the signal station\tower was located in the E corner of Monagoush Townland where a lighthouse (NIAH Reg. No. 22903904) was constructed in 1851. It is not known if the signal station\tower was enclosed or unenclosed. The Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map indicates that the signal tower was located in an enclosed landscape. 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: 30/09/22