Signal towers

[Hugo M]

This summer I visitted Dingle. At Sybil Head there was a strange transformation of the old signal tower. Can someone tell me more about this site?

[Hugo M]

Sybil Head

Two picture of the site. The first one shows the tower from behind. The second shows a strange metal "plate". Can anyone identify these "plate"

[DeV]

Would it be this?
http://www.discoverireland.ie/Result...CategoryID=976

I've never seen anything like that before

[Hugo M]

It is about that tower but... The construction of the original Signal tower started in September 1804. (Paul M.Kerrigan: Castles and fortifications in Ireland). It was then that the English were afraid of a Napoleonic invasion. The year 1880 appears on several web pages referring to Napoleon and that is a mistake. When did they changed the building and were there canons on that place?

[Test Pilot]

Two picture of the site. The first one shows the tower from behind. The second shows a strange metal "plate". Can anyone identify these "plate"

The 'plate' you mention may have been the base for a flag stay. Most of the towers used visual signals for communications between ship to shore.

[Eddie Dillon]

I too visited that tower recently, climbed up through some farmers field. A local told me it dated from WW2 but I guessed it was Napoleonic era. I wonder was it used by the DF during World War Two aslo, the coastal look out service I suppose. There's also a commemorative plate to a man who must have fallen over the cliff at the top

[Hugo M]

Found the answer
Sybil Head tower was reconstructed in 1907 with a flat roof and concrete first floor supprted on steel joists, to serve as an Admiralty signal station; it was occupied as a coast watching post as part of the line set up in 1939. (Castles & Fortifications in Ireland - P.M.Kerrigan)