County: Cork Site name: ARDAGH (BERE ISLAND)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: RMP 128:14 Licence number: 00E0665
Author: Jacinta Kiely, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: Martello tower
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 472117m, N 544018m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.634084, -9.847444
The Bere Island Project Group was granted planning permission to carry out the refurbishment of No. 4 Martello Tower on Bere Island to function as a museum. The threat of a French invasion in the late 18th/early 19th centuries prompted the building of Martello towers, batteries and signal towers on the coast and the River Shannon. By 1805 four Martello towers, one battery tower and one officers’ barrack were built on Bere Island. Tower No. 4 is circular in plan, with a diameter of 8.5m. It is a two-storey sandstone structure, c. 7m high. The entrance is at first-floor level. The ground floor is lit by two opes and was divided into three compartments. Dividing walls are now partly ruinous. The north-western room housed the gunshot. Access to the spiral stairs is in the northern wall. A fireplace is located in the southern wall. The flat paved roof was originally the platform for a single 24-pounder cannon. The parapet wall is complete, but some of the coping stones are missing.
A layer of rubble had accumulated on the ground floor of the tower. It was excavated. A mix of rubble stone, cut limestone coping stones from the roof, mortar and rubbish was removed. A stone-flagged floor was revealed except in the south-west corner, which was earthen. A water cistern was uncovered in the south-west corner. The diameter of the opening was 0.65m.
Clover Hill, Mallow, Co. Cork
