OS map of Clew Bay. Clare Island is middle left; Achillbeg is top left; Old Head is bottom middle; Westport bottom right; Inishgort just to the right of the Y in Clew Bay; Newport just off map top right.
Kudos for this article very much goes to the wonderful Dr. Michael M. O'Connor who is the supreme authority on all things historical in Mayo, who first posted this wonderful little tale, which was later reproduced in the Mayo Advertiser on July 27th 2023.
It may be difficult to contemplate but in 1797 the lighthouse at Loop Head was the only official light on the west coast of Ireland. I suspect there were many unofficial lights - from braziers atop towers to simple coal-burning fires on headlands but our knowledge of them is limited to an odd throwaway sentence here and there.
The appalling toll on shipping (and, to a lesser extent, human life) on the dark coasts of Ireland led to calls from shipowners and merchants to light up the coast, particularly in places where sea-going commerce ventured, such as Galway, Westport and Sligo. Which, in turn, led to surveys being carried out to determine the best places to put these lights, at the Government's expense.
According to one James M. O'Donnel in the Dublin Evening Post of 18th March 1797, in an open letter to the 'Merchants and Insurance Companies in Great Britain and Ireland,' the Clew Bay coast had already been surveyed by the Rt. Hon. Burton Conyngham and the Royal Navy's Lt. Drury. O'Donnel says that he has reason to believe that Achillbeg or Blackrock were the locations recommended to the Government for a lighthouse to be erected. (This was very insightful of the two gentlemen surveyors, as lighthouses were indeed erected on both locations in 1965 and 1864 respectively)
It may be difficult to contemplate but in 1797 the lighthouse at Loop Head was the only official light on the west coast of Ireland. I suspect there were many unofficial lights - from braziers atop towers to simple coal-burning fires on headlands but our knowledge of them is limited to an odd throwaway sentence here and there.
The appalling toll on shipping (and, to a lesser extent, human life) on the dark coasts of Ireland led to calls from shipowners and merchants to light up the coast, particularly in places where sea-going commerce ventured, such as Galway, Westport and Sligo. Which, in turn, led to surveys being carried out to determine the best places to put these lights, at the Government's expense.
According to one James M. O'Donnel in the Dublin Evening Post of 18th March 1797, in an open letter to the 'Merchants and Insurance Companies in Great Britain and Ireland,' the Clew Bay coast had already been surveyed by the Rt. Hon. Burton Conyngham and the Royal Navy's Lt. Drury. O'Donnel says that he has reason to believe that Achillbeg or Blackrock were the locations recommended to the Government for a lighthouse to be erected. (This was very insightful of the two gentlemen surveyors, as lighthouses were indeed erected on both locations in 1965 and 1864 respectively)
John Hamilton photo of Clare Island lighthouse. The original light was in the smaller tower capped by the black roof. It was accidentally burnt down by Reilly, the first keeper, and a temporary light was exhibited until the higher tower was built a few years later. The white dot on the hillside behind is Achillbeg lighthouse
However, JMo says, with astonishment dripping from every word he writes, that he has recently read that the Government's Committee of Supply has voted a sum of £2,650 to be expended on the construction of a lighthouse "on the Old Head, Clare Bay." (I have been unable to find this source)
Now, JMo had got onto Google Maps and couldn't find an Old Head in Clare Bay and surmised that the application was meant to refer to the Old Head in Clew Bay (aka Newport-Pratt Bay) near Clare Island. If he was right, and he was as sure as shite he was, the Old Head, which had many attractive attributes, such as a beautiful sandy beach and a bit of a quay, was a ridiculous place to build a lighthouse because the beam would be blocked by Clare Island and would not be seen by ships arriving by sea. It would be great, he said, for boats sailing over from Clare Island itself, but was spending £2,650 on this be good value for money? You might as well, he said, coining a phrase still in use today, build a lighthouse in the Bog of Allen.
He also went on to infer that certain people knew all this but had personal reasons for the project to go ahead. And that the 'clerical error' of the wrong address was, in fact, a deliberate ploy to deter objections until after the lighthouse was built. (One can imagine the Earl of Murrisk, or whoever it was, throwing off his mask and yelling "I'd have got away with it if it hadn't been for you pesky O'Donnels" as he was led away in handcuffs)
Needless to say, a lighthouse never adorned the Old Head. The Marquess of Sligo built a lighthouse on Clare Island in 1806 (to guide ships into Clew Bay) and another around the same time on Inishgort to mark the way through the long sandy bar that blocked the way to Westport. After only 159 years, they realised that the light on Clare Island was too high and replaced it with Achillbeg, as had been advised pre-1797.
Totally gratuitous photo of Inishgort lighthouse in Clew, not Clare, Bay, included here simply because it is one of my favourites
James Moore O'Donnel was the second son of Sir Neal O'Donnel who owned Burrishoole, the area around the eastern end of Clew Bay including both Newport and Westport. He was the Commander of the Newport Pratt Cavalry and a staunch loyalist. He lost his life in 1806 in a duel with the extremely unlovely Major Denis Bingham by the shores of Enniscrone in county Sligo. According to one tale, not only was O'Donnel lame and blind in one eye, but Bingham fired before the word was given and shot him through the heart.
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