Pete's Irish Lighthouses

  This is the Ross Coastguard station about a mile north of Killala in county Mayo. I wrote about it here in July 2022 because, well, it did officially shine a light from the top window to mark the limit of a reef to the north and the entrance to Killala harbour to the south. Hence it was, to all intents and purposes, a lighthouse, though not a purpose-built one. My wife and I spent a week up here at the end of March/start of April. It was cold and windy but a beautiful and historic part of the country. The history is everywhere in the countryside from the 3500bc Ceide Fields to countless burial tombs and standing stones and from the relatively intact monasteries and abbeys at Moyne and Rosserk and Rathfran to the site of the French landing at Kilcummin in 1798. Just to place exactly where I'm talking about, here's a Google map: - The blue bit is Killala Bay, an offshoot of Sligo Bay. The river, bottom centre, is the Moy, a famous salmon river that leads down to Ballina and be...

The non-nuclear Blackrock lighthouse Many lighthouse lovers in Ireland are aware that the tiny island of Rathlin O'Birne, just off the coast of Malin Beg in county Donegal, was the first and, so far, only Irish navigational light to be powered by nuclear energy, rather than the old, fuzzy sort. However, it was very nearly not so, as the original location was supposed to have been Blackrock (Mayo), our most distant light from the mainland, and the second-highest above sea level. (Kudos to anyone who knows the highest without looking it up. I made hen stumble over southern promontory (4,4)) In 1964, Irish Lights was contacted by the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell, Oxfordshire, about the possibility of converting one of its lights, Blackrock, to nuclear energy. Presumably, this was a pilot project; if it worked, others could have followed suit. Talks continued for a further six years. Several lighthouses were canvassed but the overwhelming favourite, Blackrock, messed...

Blacksod lighthouse (photo Richard Cummins) The following unnoteworthy correspondence is taken from the War and Raids collection at UCD and rivals the 'Small earthquake in Chile . Not many dead' headline in the 'Move on, nothing to see here' category. Irish Lights Office Dublin 14th June 1922 To PK, Blacksod, You are to forward a special report of the incident mentioned in your Journal for the 19th May, stating that the Station had been raided by a party of men, some armed; and explain your apparent omission to do so in the first instance,                                                                                      Secretary Blacksod when it was painted white! Sir, I respectfully beg to report that this Station was raided on the 19th May at 2.30am by a party of about ...

  Irish Lights inspection time, Clare Island c.1905 (NLI) John Gillespie was born around 1859 in that hotbed of lighthouse keepers, the north Foyle estuary. His father, Neil, had been a river pilot there and the Gillespie name would become synonymous with that body of water, with many Gillespies working as pilots, fishermen, sea captains etc. Neil had married one Ellen Loughrey - another Shrove maritime name - prior to 1857. I haven't been able to find out very much about his career as a lightkeeper. Given his age, he would probably have joined the service in the early 1880s. Certainly he was an AK at Haulbowline in 1885 and shortly thereafter rocked up to Clare Island on the boat from Roonagh to take up the position of AK there. I am surmising that it was "shortly thereafter" because John married Mary Jane Hurley on 20th April 1887 in Westport. The daughter of a farmer from Inchireagh, Dunmanway, Mary Jane was employed as a school teacher on Clare Island. A baby girl, Ma...

  For some reason, both my wife and I have a dislike of travelling through Galway to get to the other side. We both prefer to spend an extra 30 minutes driving up north to Headford and then skirting the northern shore of Lough Corrib, which was good for me on our week-long holiday to the wescht as Ireland's only inland lighthouse, Ballycurrin, was more or less en route. I was quite shocked to learn that it was thirteen years since I was last here . On that occasion, due to the wetness, I reneged on crossing the slippy rocks that guard the lighthouse but this time we were blessed by warm sunshine.  Unslippy rocks There were a few other people around - a family going kayaking on the still waters, two lads fishing under the tower and a group of friends picknicking opposite. I never noticed the dry stone-walling at the bottom of the tower. Seems a bit dodge asking it to support a stone tower but its still standing after 250 years, so what do I know? That said, there were calls las...

  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 ...

  All photos by Joe McCabe To all intents and purposes, there are only two real differences between the lighthouse on Achillbeg and the one on the Sheep's Head in Cork. The Sheeps Head has a red handrail leading up the steps to its door, whereas Achillbeg appears to be quite handrail-less. Most people of moderate walking abilities can walk right up to the Sheeps Head and give it a hug. With Achillbeg, people may have seen it as a small dot from Clare Island but not many have got much nearer. Naturally, the reason for the first lies in the second. All photos except the top one are by Joe McCabe  A light was established on the western point of Clare Island in 1806 to mark the entrance to Clew Bay and Westport but, unfortunately, like many of those old lights - Wicklow, Inis Mor, Cape Clear etc - they thought that the higher they put them, the further the light could be seen. Which was true on a clear day but hills attract the mischt and Clare Islaned light was often rendered use...

I always thought this building looked very angry when viewed from certain angles, as if practising for when Napoleon's army/navy hove around Achill, hoping to make land in the calm waters of Blacksod Bay. It is of course one of the 82 Napoleonic signal towers erected around the south-east, south, west and north coasts of Ireland after the French landed at Bantry Bay and at Kilcummin near Killala, county Mayo in 1798. The northeast of Ireland obviously didn't really matter much. Or maybe the money ran out.  The towers were built within sight of each other so that each tower could signal with a flag and ball to the next one. Fires would be lit in case His Emperorship was sighted. Badly paid members of the militia were detailed to man the towers and keep their eagle eyes out to sea. Of course, these places were, as was their nature, completely remote and located at the top of a long steep hill. It is said that, after a week or so, the badly-paid militiamen said, Sod this for a gam...