Tower — Rosslarefort

The site of this signal station has been lost to coastal erosion. When built\established, it was located to the N end of Rosslare Point, a long dynamic S-N running sand spit that extended from the mainland to the S (c. 4kms), and at the of the mouth of the estuary of the River Slaney and to the S side of the shipping channel to Wexford town, which lies c. 6kms to the W. The adjacent stations in the signal station chain were found at Hillcastle (WX048-023005-), which was located c. 10.9kms to the S, now demolished, and at Ballyconnigar, Blackwater Head (WX033-043----), which was located c. 11.4kms to the NNE\N, now also lost to coastal erosion. The site of this signal station at Fort Point was located adjacent to\within a complex of structures associated with a coastal bastioned fort (WX038-007----) that was first indicated on cartographic sources (Boazio) in 1599, and was redeveloped\extended throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries becoming a station for Revenue officers and river pilots by the mid-seventeenth century (with a complex of perhaps 11 dwellings arranged around a courtyard that were probably built during the eighteenth century – WX038-007004- to WX038-007008- that remained in use until c. 1850), a fishing settlement, the site of a Catholic chapel (c. 1800), the site of a wooden lighthouse, the site of a ‘watch house’, and the site of a Martello tower (WX038-0078002-) that housed the signal crew of the signal station when it was established (see below). Fort Point Signal Station was established at Fort Point Martello tower (WX038-0078002-), which has been lost to coastal erosion. The Martello tower was located at the N end of the low sandbar\sand spit as outlined above. The site would have had unobstructed views in all directions. The sandbar is still depicted on the Ordnance Survey third ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1908-9, but it has subsequently been washed away. Fragments of the masonry walls of some of the structures built at Fort Point can still be seen above the waterline but is difficult to ascertain what these originally formed part of. The N end of the sand bar was first fortified in the sixteenth century, and that original existing fortification was developed into a bastioned fort in the 1640s (WX038-007001-). The bastioned fort was renovated and re-armed during the 1798 rebellion (Turner 1972, 52-3). The site seems to have seen piecemeal development throughout the first half of the nineteenth century including the addition of a customs’ house and a pilot’s house (Turner 1972, 52-3). A lifeboat station was added following a major shipwreck in the area in 1859 (Turner 1972, 54). Kerrigan states that a signal tower was under construction here in 1804 but work was halted when it was decided to construct a Martello tower (WX038-007002-) that would incorporate a signal station (Kerrigan 1995, 276). Construction of the Martello tower began in 1805 (at a cost of £2,300; Kerrigan 1995 182-3)) and the signal mast was also erected in that year (Kerrigan 1995, 276). The Martello tower is recorded as having been damaged by coastal erosion in 1819 and again in 1821, after which it was demolished (Clements 2013, 75). A small rectangular watchtower (WX038-007003-) is shown on the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1839-40. This may have been constructed as a replacement for the some of the observational functions of the lost Martello Tower. The signal station 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 Malin Head in Donegal to Dublin Bay. It was abandoned by the mid-1810s when the treat of a French invasion diminished (Kerrigan 1995, 157-66). Compiled by: Stuart Rathbone Uploaded on: 05/10/22