Pete's Irish Lighthouses

Poer Head (also called and pronounced Power Head) lies about four miles east south east of Roches Point, although the name does not appear on my sat nav. Therefore I used the coordinates  51°45.595'N, 008°06.679'W and was somewhat taken aback to find that a T-Junction was my 'destination'. However, a quick call to a nearby house advised me to take the road to the right, skirt the locked gate and follow the cliff path 'for ten minutes' to reach the Head. Well, it was one windy day! The beach at Inch was deserted and the grey seas smashed into it in a particularly uninviting fashion. After about 15 minutes I came to the small compound at the end of the headland. Poer Head was unique among Irish Lights stations as it was the only one that didn't include a light.It operated from 1879 to 1970 as a fog signal station. Built under the direction of the celebrated William Douglass, it started out life as steam siren and ended up as a combination of Rusto...

A condition that the Golf Course imposed on the Old Head of Kinsale Signal Tower Restoration Fund was that buses be used to convey visitors to and from the new lighthouse. I had hoped that I could walk back as along the way there lay the ruins of the 1665 lighthouse and the 1814 lighthouse. I asked but was told firmly no. The Golf Course was afraid there might be a liability if I was struck on the head by a golf ball, and, not wishing to jeopardise their relationship with the Golf Course, I had to accept that. I did however ask the bus to pause for a minute so I could take a photo of the cottage style lighthouse through the window. Interesting to see the square cut-out in the roof where the brazier stood and which was supposed to be lit every night. There were other such lighthouses on Howth Head, Hook Head, Loop Head, Island Magee and they were uniquely Irish in design. The photo above was taken from outside the Golf course perimeter.

Three cannons were installed and established as a fog signal at the Old Head of Kinsale on 1st February 1893. Two successive reports were fired every ten minutes. A third keeper or fog signal man was appointed to the station who was at first in lodgings until another dwelling was built for him in 1895.  A new light and fog signal were established on 17th December 1907. William Spence of Dublin supplied the lantern, fog signal jibs and apparatus The character of the explosive fog signal was changed to one report every five minutes from 1st June 1934. From 1971 each explosive report of the fig signal fired during the hours of darkness was accompanied by a brilliant flash of light. When all explosive fog signals around the coast were discontinued in 1972, (due to a threat of terrorist attacks) Old Head acquired the siren fog signal from the discontinued Poer Head fog signal station (1970) with a character of three blasts every forty-five seconds. The siren was replaced by an elec...

And so to the Old Head of Kinsale. I'm figuring that this is the 5th light on this headland. The first was an ancient fire that some say was used to lure ships to their doom so the locals could get the wreckage. In 1665, a cottage style lighthouse with a brazier on the roof was built. In 1804, a six foot temporary lighthouse was constructed to replace the brazier. In 1814, a new tower was erected which unfortunately was frequently obscured by fog. And so, in 1853 the new lighthouse was built. It was originally white with two red bands - this changed in 1830 to the current black with two white stripes (or, presumably, white with three black stripes!) The lighthouse here is usually blocked off to the public by the Golf Course here but once a year the Old Signal Head Tower Restoration Fund hold an open day. The one last year, which I missed, was apparently a huge success. This year I arrived at about 10.30 and there were very few people there. This could have had some...

Slow train to Kinsale or Ogden Nashes his teeth Living in Ireland, I think perhaps we don’t really appreciate our wonderful scenery. It is particularly evident when coming back from holidays in hot places like Lanzarote or Egypt that are dry and arid and completely devoid of any greenery. (Not that I wish to decry the Canarian or Egyptian landscape which is of the most part quite spectacular And can be ‘the dog’s bollix’ to use a coarse vernacular.) But, in truth, there is little in nature to beat driving through the Irish countryside with the sun, when it is actually shining, casting shadows from the hedgerows, Or shining, when there are no hedgerows, on the potato rows or carrot rows or other veg rows. So, after visiting Galley Head lighthouse, I decided to make for the lighthouse at the Old Head of Kinsale, Which, along with Hook Head, the Fastnet and Howth Bailey, is, to Irish lighthouse enthusiasts, the equivalent of the Holy Grail. And so I had the choice ...

Calculating that I would arrive in Kinsale before the first tour began, I decided to use the time profitably to visit Galley Head lighthouse, as it was the only functioning lighthouse I hadn't managed to visit between the Suir and Crookhaven. The technical and historical stuff can be found on the CIL page here . For some reason, the coordinates given on the CIL page seemed to want to bring me inland (which I sensed was probably wrong) so I rather crudely set my course to Point on the Map. Without GPS, you need to go to Clonakilty and take the road leading to Inchydoney Island, a lovely beach which we visited on a warm summer's day ten years ago. The road brings you along the shore of the estuary and then, when the road bends around to the right (as the sign for Inchydoney says go straight on) you follow the bend around to the right, past a beach, whose sand was on this day blown all over the road. About a mile up this road, there is a signpost pointing left to Galley He...

  Buoy near Blackrock Castle The report of the Port of Dublin Lighthouse Inspectors to the Board of Trade in 1864 is a fascinating snapshot the state of the Lighthouse service in that year. It details the lights found, their condition, their characteristics and their usefulness.  Blackrock Castle with Tivoli Quay behind (looking eastwards from Dunkettle) It is a long journey from entering Cork harbour at Roches Point to the City quay, with many banks and shallows and in general the inspectors were highly complimentary of the lights provided by the Cork Harbour authorities.  Starboard marker buoy at Dunkettle Apart from the Spit Bank Screwpile lighthouse at Cobh, the report lists five other lighthouses, as well as numerous perches and buoys. The lighthouses are at Lough Mahon, Dunkettle, Blackrock Castle, King's Quay and Tivoli.  Port marker buoy at Dunkettle The Lough Mahon Light appears to have been at the eastern end of Lough Maho...

Annual open day at the Old Head of Kinsale lighthouse in county Cork. A long long way to go for one lighthouse, so I was up early and on the road at 5.30am, even though the weather forecast didn't look promising. This is Blackrock Castle on the banks of the River Lee in Cork City, now more famous as an observatory . In fact, very few people are aware that it was once a lighthouse at all. The Castle's own site says " The original tower was built by the citizens of Cork in 1582 to guard the water approach to the city from pirates and other raiders. The tower also acted as a sentinel to guide shipping safely to and from the port. Indeed the motto on the crest of Cork City above the Latin phrase: “Statio Bene Fida Carinis” means “a safe harbour for ships. ' Following the 1601 Battle of Kinsale against the Spanish, Lord-Deputy Mountjoy replaced the fort with a castle in 1604 but this was as much to protect himself from the citizens of Cork as from the Spanish. ...