The lighthouses at Duncannon

Duncannon Fort light with Duncannon North deceptively close (800m) behind (Facebook page)

A couple of years ago, Andrew Doherty, author and guru of the wonderful Tides and Tales blog /maritime community project at Cheekpoint, asked me if I'd like to write a guest piece on the Duncannon lighthouses for the blog. Rather foolishly, I said yes. I am now shamelessly stealing the piece for this blog. Andrew's tireless researching of local history stands as a benchmark for all other communities around the coast.

Reposing in the shadow of Hook Head (not literally, except during very peculiar astronomical events), the lights of Duncannon Fort might not enjoy the limelight of its illustrious neighbour but it has an interesting history nonetheless.

The problem for shipping bound for Waterford in the 1700s was that, having breathed a huge sigh of relief on rounding Hook Head, they then got caught out by a nasty bar just south of Duncannon Fort. Not the sort that sells frothy pints and stale pies, but a sand bar, lying from one shore of the Barrow/Nore/Suir to the other. A French visitor in 1784 wrote that it was the only natural obstacle to the harbour, with a draft of only 13 feet at low tide. Sayer’s Sailing Directions (1790) – the full title is the length of a short story in itself – clarifies this by saying that the thirteen feet only applies to low tides when accompanied by a northerly wind. The only feasible crossing place for this bar was on the Wexford side of the river at a place only 600 feet (a cable length) wide.

Fort light - the light now shines from the old lower light

The above-mentioned publication also gives two methods of crossing the bar in 1790. One was to line up Newton’s Trees and Hogan’s House, which must have had many a foreign sea-captain scratching his head. The other was to keep the two lights in line.

The Lighthouse Digest suggests a date of 1774 for the foundation of a light station in the fort, as does a handwritten note in a 1930s Commissioners of Irish Lights ledger. Certainly, the lights were there by 1790, as per Sayer’s above. However, a Notice to Mariners for 1791 states that “a new lighthouse” would be established on 29^th September of that year. The two lights, one above the other, would shine like “two stars of full magnitude” and, when the fort was passed, only one light would show.

Photo courtesy NIAH

This would seem to indicate that the 1791 lighthouse, with its two lights, one above the other, superceded an older arrangement, maybe a light from a fort window or flat roof lined up to a perch on the coast, both probably lit by candles or coal fires. The 1791 light was, almost definitely, the first of its kind in Ireland, with its two lights in the one tower. The lights incidentally were white and fixed and powered by three Argand lamps. They could be seen for 8¼ miles. The tower was 25 feet tall and the top light sat 53 feet above high water.

The notion of having a lighthouse in a military instillation was not new. The first light at what became the site of Charlesfort on the approach to Kinsale was at Barry Og’s castle in 1665. When the castle was destroyed, the light shone from a window in the newly built Charles Fort. Similarly, Rosslare Fort at the entrance to Wexford harbour also had a lighthouse. Not only did this move safeguard the lighthouse from vandalism by forces who saw the harvest of shipwrecks as a God-given right, but the Commissioners of Barracks were made responsible for lighting Ireland’s shores from 1767 to 1796. As such, they killed two seagulls with one cannonball.

Funding for the light was not straightforward. An allowance was given to the Lighthouse Superintendent, Samuel Newport, but he had to convene a hurried meeting with the Waterford merchants and shipowners in 1793 as the money was practically gone!

Duncannon Fort was one of fourteen coastal lights that were handed over to the Ballast Board (the precursor of Irish Lights) when that body was charged with lighting our shores in 1810. According to Engineer John Swan Sloane (writing in 1880) the coast of repairing, converting and upgrading the light at the time was £845 10s 6d.

Fort light (photo courtesy Joy Tubby)

By 1832, the lights were paying their own way, costing £83 for maintenance and salary per year, and taking in £308 in light-dues, out-performing all other harbour lights, except Poolbeg, and indeed many sea lights such as Loop Head and Clare Island.

In the 1830s, a new light was erected at Duncannon North, though one suspects this had more to do with the situation at Roches Point at the mouth of Cork harbour. Basically, it was decided the small light there was considered too insignificant for such an important headland, so they decided to build a new one and move the old lighthouse somewhere else. Duncannon North came to mind and so the new light, half a mile to the north of the fort, was established on 1^st June 1838., after being transported from Cork in two boats.

The contractor for the tower and dwellings was Mr. Legge of Duncannon. It is probably no coincidence that a William Legge (builder) became keeper of the Fort light in 1854. It is safe to say that if Home of the Year had been around in 1838, the North light would have been up for an award. It has been widely admired for its workmanship and supreme stepped location overlooking the Suir.

 

Duncannon North light

The tower was 35 feet tall and the light was white, fixed and 128 feet above sea level. Like the Fort light, it employed a third order catoptric lens using prisms to concentrate the light. The whole station cost £4,945.

Because of this, the top light at the Fort became the front leading light, with Duncannon North as the rear leading light. The lower light at the Fort became a tide light, only showing at half-tide or less.

In an 1859 inspection, the paint on the Fort light was described as very clean but the ventilation was indifferent. The North light excelled in ventilation, the house was orderly and the lantern very clean.

A red light was added to the Fort light in 1882. In 1937/38 both lights were made unmanned automatic and the two keepers replaced by one attendant. The lights were electrified in 1971. It was decided by Irish Lights that the Duncannon North light was no longer needed in 1990 and it was sold for £100,000 the following year, when both lights were decommissioned. The North light sold for £300,000 when it was put on the market twenty years later.

After numerous complaints, the Fort light was recommissioned by the Waterford Port Authority in 1996, when it was realised that Newton’s trees had been felled to make the roadway and Hogan had moved house a century before.

And I was delighted to see that the North light is now back in service too. Seems to be three seconds on, one second off, as far as I could judge, daylight hours included!

The next post will list the keepers at Duncannon, or as many of them as I could find.

 

 Duncannon North looking across to the fort (photo NBHS)

And there was darkness and the Waterford Harbour Authority (or whoever) said Let there be Light

And lo! there was Light. And it was good.

Drumroe Bank North buoy, slightly north of Duncannon, mid-channel