Irish Martello Towers
Created | Updated Nov 1, 2019
Martello Towers are named after a place in Corsica which wasn't called Martello - it was Mortella. There is a big tower there which was used to repel a British invasion, inspiring the British to name their defensive towers after it.
There were a number of Martello Towers built along the coast around Dublin to guard against an invasion by Napoleon. The towers are squat cylinders of stone, with very few windows.
These are the ones I've spotted so far, roughly in order from south to north:
| South Dublin (incl Wicklow) | |||||
| My Order | Official Numbering | Location | Lat Long | Link | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South #2 | Bray | 53.206831, -6.101701 | * | Bono's Tower |
| 2 | South #6 | Killiney | 53.249877, -6.112845 | * | Enoch's Tower |
| 3 | South #7 | Killiney Hill | 53.256398, -6.118261 | * | |
| 4 | South #9 | Dalkey Island | 53.271578, -6.085101 | * | |
| 5 | South #10 | Bartra | 53.283288, -6.103645 | * | |
| 6 | South #11 | Sandycove | 53.288669, -6.113618 | * | Joyce Museum |
| 7 | South #14 | Seapoint | 53.297857, -6.159844 | * | |
| 8 | South #15 | Blackrock/Booterstown | 53.306554, -6.188535 | * | |
| 9 | South #16 | Sandymount | 53.325148, -6.206911 | * | |
| North Dublin | |||||
| My Order | Official Numbering | Location | Lat Long | Link | Comments |
| 10 | North #1 | Sutton: Red Rock | 53.369338, -6.095968 | * | |
| 11 | North #2 | Howth: Above Village | 53.387660, -6.063714 | * | |
| 12 | North #3 | Ireland's Eye, Northwest Corner | 53.408254, -6.069659 | * | |
| 13 | North #4 | Portmarnock | 53.435915, -6.122350 | * | Terry Prone |
| 14 | North #5 | Malahide (remodelled) | 53.447722, -6.135544 | * | Hick's Tower |
| 15 | North #6 | Donabate | 53.478331, -6.115362 | * | |
| 16 | North #7 | Portrane | 53.489855, -6.097138 | * | |
| 17 | North #9 | Rush | 53.521033, -6.076403 | * | |
| 18 | North #8 | Drumanagh, south of Loughshinny | 53.540606, -6.078106 | * | |
| 19 | North #11 | Shenick Island, Skerries | 53.573741, -6.085826 | * | |
| 20 | North #10 | Skerries Red Island Peninsula | 53.584603, -6.102562 | * | |
| 21 | North #12 | Balbriggan | 53.615932, -6.183303 | * | |
| 22 | North # | Millmount, Drogheda? | 53.711635, -6.349475 | * | |
The second column above gives the official number of the tower. There are some gaps in the numbering because some towers were built but since demolished (S#1, S#3, S#4, S#12, S#13), and some were built as gun emplacements rather than towers with a gun on the roof (S#5, S#8). There were separate numbering systems for south and north Dublin.
Millmount Fort in Drogheda has a tower that looks like a Martello Tower, but it doesn't appear to be in the numbering system.
South Tower Number 1 was on Bray seafront where the bandstand is. This was before the promenade had been built. It explains the Martello Hotel and Bar being positioned far from the current Martello tower.
Other parts of the country
| 1 | Clonehenoge, Offaly on the Shannon | 53.171599, -8.080515 |
| 2 | Ringaskiddy | 51.828388, -8.309817 |
| 3 | Baginbun Head, Wexford | 52.174072, -6.828354 |
| 4 | Duncannon, Wexford | 52.223950, -6.928906 |
| 5 | Garnish Island, Glengarriff, Cork | |
| 6 | Bere Island, Cork | |
The Joyce tower featured in the first chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses, which is why it has been turned into a Joyce Museum.
The Clohenoge Tower on the Shannon is the only inland tower. It is not a simple circular tower, but three circles joined together allowing three guns on the roof.
The Garnish Island tower is very crude compared with the ones around Dublin. The stone is not smooth on the outside, and inside there is just one big room. It still has the circular top with gun emplacement in the middle, though. The sides are steeper than on a Dublin Martello, supposedly to make them more rain-proof, because of the greater rainfall in West Cork.
