Hook Head Light Ho. — Churchtown (shelburne By.)

Located on level ground at the S end of the Hook Peninsula (12m OD). The area consists of level ground with enclosed arable fields to the N, defined by linear field boundaries, and with low rocky coastline adjacent to the S, W, and E. The site offers unobstructed views in all directions. The adjacent signal stations at Brownstone Head, Waterford (WA026-098----), located c. 12.2kms to the W, is now demolished but the Brownstown Head Beacons (NIAH Reg. No. 22902609), constructed on the site of the signal station, are clearly visible in good weather, and the signal station at Baginbun Martello tower (WX050-027001- for signal station; NIAH Reg. No. 15705009 for Martello tower), located c. 8.87kms to the NE\NNE, where the signal crew was accommodated at the Martello tower, is visible to the NE in good weather. The site of this signal station, at Hook Head Lighthouse (WX054-010----), is located c. 1.7kms SW of a tower house, Slade Castle (WX054-008001-), and an associated fortified house (WX054-008002-), located at Slade Harbour further up the NE coastline of the Hook Peninsula, and c. 1.65kms S of a church site (WX054-009001-), indicated as ‘Hook Church’, on the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map of 1839-40. The signal station was established at the existing lighthouse complex (WX054-010----). Other than a signal mast, erected by 1805, no new constructions were added to the site when the signal station was established (Kerrigan 1995, 276). The lighthouse is set towards the SE corner of a large rectangular-plan enclosure (ext. dims c. 132m NE-SW x c. 105m NW-SE) , defined by rubble stone boundary walls, and is immediately surrounded by a restored cobbled yard, both of which are shown on the Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1839-40. To the NE (c. 30 and c. 35m) of the lighthouse there are a pair of identical two-storey lighthouse keeper’s cottages (NIAH Reg. Nos. 15705415 and 15705416) constructed in the 1860s, which were subsequently connected by a range of single-storey buildings (Colfer 2004, 290). Immediately S of the lighthouse there are apparently some fragments of medieval buildings and a distinctive twentieth-century two-storey observation structure, similar in form to the Lookout Post (LOP 15) at Cross Faranogue, County Wexford. To the W is a single-storey magazine building with a barrel-vaulted concrete roof. The remains of a ‘gun house’ that held a foghorn are located to the SW of the enclosure, near to the low cliffs. The concrete slab foundation of a World War II-era Lookout Post (LOP 16) is located c. 68m to the WSW of the lighthouse, outside of the walled enclosure and adjacent to the rocky coastline. In 1999 a small archaeological excavation (License No. 99E0020) at the site revealed the remains of a seventeenth-century or earlier enclosure around the lighthouse but nothing that could be related to the later signal station (Hayden 1999; Alan Hayden pers. comm.). There is a ‘flag staff’ indicated outside of the enclosure adjacent to the coastline c. 60m WSW of the lighthouse on the Ordnance Survey twenty-five inch map of the site, c. 1901; it is possible that this was the site of an earlier signal mast associated with the signal station. 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: 04/10/22 Images: WX054-010001-.01 View from the W WX054-010001-.02 View from the N WX054-011001-.03 View of magazine to the W of lighthouse WX054-010001-.04 View of concrete foundation of Lookout Post (LOP 16) to WSW