Survey Data
Reg No
31304101
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social, Technical
Original Use
Lighthouse
In Use As
Lighthouse
Date
1855 - 1865
Coordinates
51498, 309099
Date Recorded
30/07/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding single-bay two-stage lighthouse, sanctioned 1857; begun 1858; completed 1862; commissioned 1864, on a circular plan. Damaged, 1940. Automated, 1974. Repaired, 2011. Limewashed granite ashlar battered walls on cut-granite chamfered plinth with cantilevered walkway on "Cavetto"-detailed beaded corbels supporting cast iron railings centred on lantern on rendered battered base. Square-headed door opening with cut-granite voussoirs framing replacement sheet steel door. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite sills, and cut-granite voussoirs framing replacement fixed-pane timber fittings. Interior retaining cut-granite spiral staircase with wrought iron balusters supporting wrought iron banister. Set on outcrop.
Appraisal
A lighthouse erected to an undated design by George Halpin Junior (1804-69), Inspector of Works and Lighthouses for the Ballast Board (appointed 1854; resigned 1862; CIL), representing an important component of the mid nineteenth-century maritime built heritage of County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, one recalling the Halpin-designed Ballynacourty Point Lighthouse (1858), County Waterford, confirmed by such attributes as the gently tapering silhouette; and the streamlined iron work encircling the lantern.