Signal tower in Crossfarnogue

The approximate site of this signal station was located in an area of low level terrain that rises gradually to the NE, c. 520m to the NNE of the tip of Crossfarnoge or Forlorn Point and c. 300m WSW of the centre of the small coastal village of Kilmore Quay (OD c. 11m). It was possibly located c. 265m to the E of the coastline at Ballytiege Bay and c. 200m NW of the harbour at Kilmore Quay. The surrounding area is now contained within modern urban sprawl\development associated with the adjacent village with a sandy beach and area of dunes located c. 300m to the NW, and with arable and pastureland, defined by linear field boundaries, located outside the village to the N, NW and NE after c. 800m. The adjacent stations in the signal station chain were found at Baginbun (WX050-027001-), located c. 16.275kms to the W, where the signal crew were accommodated at the Martello tower (WX050-027----; NIAH Reg. No. 15705009), and at Hilltown (WX048-23005-), located c. 14.65kms to the NE\ENE, now demolished. The probable site of this signal station is located c. 1.1kms to the S of Ballyteige Castle (WX052-018001-) with an associated bawn (WX052-018002-), and c. 1.8kms SSW of a windmill (WX052-019----) at Chapel. The signal station at Crossfarnoge\Crossfarnogue has been demolished (pre 1839-40, see below). Few details about the signal station, not even its exact position or original form, are known. Kerrigan established that a signal station had been constructed at the site by 1804 and that the signal mast had been erected by 1805 (Kerrigan 1995, 276). The most likely site is to the centre of the peninsula, a short distance NNE of the tip of Crossfarnoge Point. However, Rathbone (2020) suggested that the signal station may have been a precursor to the coastguard station that is shown on the Ordnance Survey map first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1839-40, next to the quay at Kilmore Quay. This coastguard station was later replaced by a new station a short distance to the E (NIAH Reg. No. 15621017). It is notable that this signal station was demolished at an early date, pre the compilation of the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map of 1839-40. Many of the signal towers (5 out of 6) in neighbouring Waterford were also demolished at an early date. 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, and possibly the others along the Waterford coastline. Perhaps this signal station at Crossfarnoge\Crossfarnogue was demolished around this time for the same reasons. 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 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