Survey Data
Reg No
15705327
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social, Technical
Original Use
Lighthouse
In Use As
Lighthouse
Date
1810 - 1820
Coordinates
322633, 107147
Date Recorded
28/01/2008
Date Updated
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Description
Freestanding single-bay four-stage lighthouse, sanctioned 1811; built 1812-5; commissioned 1815, on a circular plan. "Improved", 1885. Electrified, 1938. Automated, 1993. Limewashed granite ashlar battered walls on battered base with cantilevered walkway supporting cast-iron railings centred "Harlequin" lantern on battered base. Square-headed window openings with limewashed cut-granite sills, and limewashed cut-granite lintels framing two-over-two timber sash windows. Set on outcrop.
Appraisal
A lighthouse erected to a design by George Halpin Senior (1776-1854), Inspector of Works and Lighthouses for the Ballast Board (appointed 1810), representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century built heritage of County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition, one where Trinity House insisted that the design be based on that by Daniel Asher Alexander (1768-1846) for South Stack Lighthouse (1809) near Holyhead (DIA), confirmed by such attributes as the "bell"-shaped silhouette; the construction in a silver-grey Dalkey granite demonstrating good quality workmanship, albeit one largely concealed behind a gleaming whitewashed finish; and the simple iron work encircling the lantern.