Malin Head, Co. Donegal

[spider]

CP,do you have that books title please ?

[Steamy Window]

yes, tony, that is a fine idea. There should be at least one LOP and one EIRE marker formally preserved. If I am talking to some Heritage Council people I must float that idea.

Mind you sometimes the best that can be achieved is that these things would be preserved by record and in that way you have done great work. I know the pier at Rosroe well but never quite made it out to the LOP.

A slightly different subject but still on the question of Emergency era built heritage how many examples survive of concrete pillboxes (as opposed to observation huts)?

I can think of the following examples:

a number at Oldbridge on the north side of the Boyne

There is also one at Mell, on the outskirts of Drogheda (not too far from Oldbridge)

I believe someone in the Drogheda area has done a survey of pillboxes in the local area.

On a related note, spotted a book in Easons of Limerick today on coastal fortifications in Ireland. It had "The Shannon Line" in the title :confused:

[Tony Kearns]

Malin Head

CP I hope that you are successful in talking with the Heritage Council. It would be nice to see one preseved perhaps in an area of a local museum and included as part of a heritage centre (it is a pity that the LOP at Hook Head right beside the lighthouse was demolished.)
I fear that the pillboxes are fast disappearing. Many years ago they were removed from the approaches to Baldonnel and Dublin Airport. There is at least one at Gormanston picture included taken a few years ago and some overlooking the harbour at Rosslare.
Perhaps the National Museum at Collins Bks woud consider constucting an example of a LOP at the Museum. They were of very simple construction and this could be achived at very little expense. It would illustrate the conditions endured by those volunteers at the isolated locations manned in all weathers.

[spider]

I agree with you lads and CP i also hope things go well in your negotiations with the council.

I live North of the border and many of the WW2 buildings here are being demolished/allowed to rot.

I just think its a real shame. Prime example- St Angelo airport, Co. Fermanagh an important WW2 base. Some idiot demolished all the buildings dating from that time

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland..._replies.shtml

Another example.. Mount Pleasant house, Newtownards, Co. Down. Family home of Blair Mayne SAS. Burned to the ground by vandals. It was hoped that it would be turned into a museum in his memory.

I would love to see an exhibit on this subject in the museum in Dublin,I hope to visit there soon.

Hugo,Steamy, thanks for the info. re the other sites and if I come across that book I will be buying it.

[Curragh Plains]

Incidentally, the pillboxes at Oldbridge were illustrated some years ago in a publication on the monuments of the Boyne Valley, I think Ms.Geraldine Stout, archaeologist, was the author. This is important as it situates them within the continuity of Irish built heritage in such an historic location.

[Curragh Plains]

I think there is a pillbox at Rosslare Harbour, wedged in to the cliff above the port. Not certain but thought I say a mention of same.

More curious is the 'beehive' type concrete shelter which is on display at the National Museum. I saw photographs of same in a book on Ireland during the Emergency -- De Valera was emerging from one which according to the caption was at Kilbride camp. Were these just a training thing confined to Kilbride or were they more dispersed?

[DeV]

I think there is a pillbox at Rosslare Harbour, wedged in to the cliff above the port. Not certain but thought I say a mention of same.

Its a Coastwatching Service hut.

[Truck Driver]

There's a pillbox on one of the approach roads to the Curragh Camp - I think it's the
road which brings you up to the East end of the camp, at UNTSI

[Curragh Plains]

Yes, Truck Driver, there are quite a number around the camp and on the plain south of the motorway. Still have not managed to find the one on the Ardenode road out of Ballymore Eustace.

[Curragh Plains]

Just to return to our cataloguing of Emergency era pillboxes ... I think I remember an example at the bridge at Butlersbridge, Co. Cavan.

[Steamy Window]

Incidentally, the pillboxes at Oldbridge were illustrated some years ago in a publication on the monuments of the Boyne Valley, I think Ms.Geraldine Stout, archaeologist, was the author. This is important as it situates them within the continuity of Irish built heritage in such an historic location.

I know of 3 pillboxes in the Oldbridge area, must grab a camera sometime and take some photos. One of them is almost underneath the new Boyne bridge, another is close to the Battle of the Boyne site, for those of you who are interested.

[farlee]

I remember seeing a series of pill boxes overlooking the ferry terminal in Rosslare in the late 1970's, they were partially buried and some local children were digging around them. Also when I was a child we used to play in a pillbox overlooking the bridge in Waterford, it was on the grounds of the Ardree hotel at the top of the cliff above the train station. There is also a pill box overlooking the harbour in Dunmore East and I believe there is also a coast watch station there aswell.

[farlee]

There is a nice photo of the pillbox on the Blackrock at the Tramore road on this Forum. http://www.upthedeise.com/waterfordm...r=asc&start=45
Does anyone Know when this one was built? It looks to me like it may predate WW2.

[GoneToTheCanner]

Hi all
there is /was an LOP at Fenit, as I visited when I was 15, which was 26 years ago now....there are two pillboxes at Poulaphouca Dam, both visible from the road, one of which is in the grounds of the Poulaphouca Hotel and the other near the water tower on the west side of the N81, oposite the Dam.....there is a partial pillbox at Dublin Airport, right at the perimeter track, where it turns around the 29 end of Rwy 29. There is a builder's yard right alongside.....I saw the EIRE sign up in Malin Head once, about ten years ago. It's easily missed as the grass grows over it very quickly.
regards
GttC

[farlee]

Just came across another pillbox, this one is in Kilmacthomas, County Waterford,
http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/nia...regno=22805045