Tower (1839-41) — Dysert

Situated to the SE side of a low NW-SE running ridge a short distance (c. 265m SE of) the high point of the ridge, and c. 240m NW of the tip of Ram Head and c. 1.25kms SE of the centre of the small coastal village of Ardmore (OD c. 50m). Located on gently sloping terrain that falls away gradually to the E, S and W, and rises slightly to the NW towards the high point of the ridge. The surrounding area consists of enclosed pasture and arable land to N and W enclosed by linear field boundaries, and with limited areas of rough ground located a short distance to the SW, S, SE and to the E immediately adjacent to the coastline. The adjacent stations in the signal station\tower chain were located at Knockadoon Head, Cork (CO78-015----), located c. 13.15kms to the WSW, which survives in good condition, and at Mine Head, Ballymona, Monagoush (WA039-040---), located c. 10.2kms to the ENE, which is no longer extant (demolished at an early date; pre-1839-41). This signal station\tower is located c. 2.56kms E of a coastal promontory fort located at Ardoginna, and c. 1.2kms SE of St. Declan’s Cathedral (WA040-008002-), with numerous associated monuments including a round tower (WA040-008003-) and St. Declan’s Oratory (WA040-008001-), located at Ardochesty just to the S of the town of Ardmore. An early-nineteenth-century (c. 1804-5) two-storey square-plan signal station\tower (ext. dims. c. 5.85m NW-SE x c. 5.85m NE-SW), built with roughly coursed rubble stone masonry. The walls of the signal station\tower face, NE, SE, SW, and NW. This structure is noticeably lower in height and differs in form compared with other contemporary examples of its type and date located along the NW, W and SW coastline of Ireland, suggesting that it was heavily altered\modified on at least one occasion subsequent to going out of use as a signal station c. 1810-5. It now has the appearance of a Victorian folly. It has an external stairway wrapping around the SW and NW walls, where it reaches a platform (ext. dims c. 2.4m NE-SW x 1.2m NW-SE) that accesses a square-headed doorway at first floor level (to centre of NW elevation). This stairway has a cement parapet wall with rounded coping along its outer faces; crenelated coping to the NW side of parapet wall at platform\landing level. A pointed-arched doorway is located to the NE side of this stairway at ground floor level (under platform), which opens into a small space under the stairwell, there is a narrow round- or square-headed loophole-type window opening to the NW side of this room under the stairwell with under stairs storage area located internally under the flight of steps to the SW exterior. The NE and SW elevations both feature tall and narrow centrally-placed square-headed window openings at ground floor level and a larger centrally-placed square-headed door or window opening over at first floor level. The SE wall also features a centrally-placed square-headed window opening at first floor level. The structure has a crenelated cement rendered parapet that projects from the face of the structure and is supported on rendered or stone corbels. A tall cement rendered chimneystack extends over the N corner of the signal station\tower, which has crenelated coping over. There are no bartizans over the corners of the signal tower and no machicolation over the first floor doorway on the SE wall, which was presumably the original entrance (as is seen at contemporary structures of its type and date). The walls are covered in cement render. The interior has also been altered and has cement rendered walls and the remains of timber floor joists survive at first floor level. There is a square-plan trapdoor opening in the reinforced concrete roof (formerly giving access to parapet level) to the SW end of the SE elevation and a square-headed brick-lined alcove\fireplace to the centre of the SE elevation at ground floor level (no chimney flue). Kerrigan established that a signal mast had been erected by 1804 and that the signal station\tower was completed in 1806 (Kerrigan 1995, 277). It is indicated as a ‘telegraph tower’ on the Grand Jury map of Co. Waterford dated 1819 (NLI: 16 J 4). The signal tower is not shown within an enclosure on the Ordnance Survey map first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1839-41, which identifies the site as ‘Tower.’ The Ordnance Survey second ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1897-1905, depicts the signal tower in the centre of a small circular enclosure (ext. dims c. 44m N-S x. c. 48m E-W). It is identified as ‘Watch Tower’ and a semaphore post is marked adjacent to SE of the signal station\tower at this time; suggesting it may have been recommissioned for use as such at some point during the second half of the nineteenth century. A well-preserved reinforced concrete World War II-era Lookout Post (LOP 20) is located c.1 20m to the SE. 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: 29/09/22