The Mizen’s maritime landscape features two martial monuments, while very different in origin, are very similar in appearance: the O’Mahony tower houses (See: “The O’Mahony Tower Houses”) and the Napoleonic era signal towers. Indeed, the signal towers, at Knock, Brow Head, and Mizen Head, are sometimes confused with the O’Mahony tower houses.

These solitary, grey towers were constructed around the Irish coast between 1804 and 1806 at a total cost of £250,000 (equivalent to £30 million today) in response to the attempted French landing in Bantry in 1796 and the successful landing in Killala, Co. Mayo, in 1798.

These signal towers, or what remains of them, directly reflect the turbulent political climate in Ireland and Europe at the start of the nineteenth century and are an important relic of Ireland’s military and architectural heritage.

If you would like to know more about the Napoleonic era watch towers on the Mizen: www.buythebook.ie/this-is-the-mizen/