Survey Data
Reg No
15704411
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social, Technical
Original Use
Lighthouse
In Use As
Lighthouse
Date
1835 - 1840
Coordinates
272690, 109081
Date Recorded
18/09/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding single-bay two-stage lighthouse, built 1838, on a circular plan. "Converted", 1938. Electrified, 1971. Decommissioned, 1991. Recommissioned, 1996. Limewashed granite ashlar battered walls on cut-granite chamfered plinth with cantilevered walkway on cut-granite thumbnail beaded corbels supporting cast-iron serpentine railings centred on lantern on granite ashlar battered base. Square-headed door opening with cut-granite step threshold, and cut-granite lintel framing timber boarded door. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite sills, and cut-granite lintels framing eight-over-eight timber sash windows. Limewashed interior retaining cantilevered cut-granite spiral staircase with wrought iron balusters supporting wrought iron banister. Set in shared grounds on an elevated site with limewashed rendered battered boundary wall to perimeter having lichen-covered cut-granite coping.
Appraisal
A lighthouse representing an important component of the built heritage of south County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition confirmed by such attributes as the circular plan form; the gently tapering silhouette; the construction in a limewashed granite demonstrating good quality workmanship; and the curvilinear iron work encircling the lantern. NOTE: The lighthouse was originally erected (1815-7) at Roche's Point, County Cork, to designs by George Halpin Senior (1776-1854), Inspector of Works and Lighthouses for the Ballast Board (appointed 1810), following consent from Trinity House for a light '[that] need not be of great magnitude but readily distinguishable from Old Head of Kinsale'. The tower, standing thirty-six feet tall, was soon considered ill-suited to guiding shipping into Cork Harbour and was replaced (1835) by a tower standing forty-nine feet tall. The original tower was dismantled and, together with its lamps and reflectors, was carried in two vessels to Duncannon where it was re-erected as a companion to the lighthouse in Duncannon Fort (see 15618012).