Watch House

Situated at the western edge of Mutton Island, immediately E of the low vertical cliffs that drop down to the coast (30m OD). Located on flat ground a short distance from the coastline (c. 22m to W). The surrounding area consists of unenclosed rough pastureland. The adjacent signal towers in the chain are found at Hag’s Head (CL014-010002-), located c. 15.9kms to the NNE, and at Ballard (CL046-005----), now demolished, located c. 10.3kms to the SW. Signal tower on Mutton Island located c. 1.3kms W of the scant remains of St. Senan's Church (CL038-003001-), located to the E side of the island, and c. 4.1kms WNW of a tower house (CL038-006-----), indicated as ‘Tromra Castle’ on the Ordnance Survey third ed. six-inch map (c. 1913-8), which is located at Tromracastle on mainland County Clare. An early nineteenth-century (c. 1804-5) two-storey square-plan signal tower (approx. ext. dims. 5.85m NE-SW x 5.85m NW-SE), built with roughly coursed rubble. The doorway is located on the first floor of the SE elevation and would have been originally accessed via a retractable ladder. An area of lime render survives on the wall surrounding the doorway. The doorway retains a good-quality cut limestone block-and-start surround with cut stone lintel with keystone, and a cut limestone threshold to the base. The doorway is protected by a rectangular brick-built machicolation over supported by three cut limestone corbels. The brick-built part of the machicolation has largely collapsed. A large hole has been opened up through the wall below the first floor doorway to provide ground level access. The NE and SW walls each feature two square-headed window openings at both ground floor and first floor levels that retain cut limestone block-and-start limestone surrounds and cut limestone sills. The first floor level of the NE elevation features an area of render around the window openings with intact weather-proof slate cladding. The NW elevation is plain and bulges slightly along its length to the centre to house the chimney flue. The internal face of the NW wall features centrally placed fireplaces at ground and first floor levels flanked to either side by square-headed alcoves. The ground floor fireplace retains an unusually good quality cut limestone surround. Large sections of lime render survive to the interior and rows of holes in the walls indicate the location of joist holes for supporting the floors. Square bartizans were located on the E and N corners. The W bartizan has entirely collapsed, and the N bartizan has collapsed but the three supporting cut stone corbels survive. The E part of the parapet wall has collapsed in sections. Kerrigan established that the signal mast had been erected and the signal tower completed by 1805 (Kerrigan 1995, 278). The signal tower is set within a well-preserved rectangular enclosure (ext. dims c. 55m NW-SE x 30m NE-SW) defined by a tall coursed rubble stone wall. It has an entrance on the SE side defined by two tall but heavily denuded and collapsing coursed and squared rubble stone gate piers. The enclosure is on a slightly different alignment to the signal tower, suggesting it may have been a secondary addition to the site. A partially ruined rubble stone rectangular building (ext. dims. c. 9m NW-SE x c. 3m NE-SW) is located in the W corner of the enclosure. The Ordnance Survey first ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1840-2, shows the signal tower, enclosure and the rectangular building. The site is identified as ‘Watch Ho.’ On the Ordnance Survey second ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1893-7, the same details are depicted, but the rectangular building is shown as being divided into a larger room at the SE and a small room at the NW. The site is identified as ‘Watch House (in Ruins)’ on the Ordnance Survey third ed. six-inch map, surveyed 1913-8, no longer shows the internal division of the rectangular building. 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).