Archaeology 360: WWII Lookout Post, Horn Head, Co Donegal

As part of our Summer excursion to Donegal, I wanted to bring the family to see the incredible views from Horn Head. Back in 1989, when I was working at Tom Fanning's excavation at Rinnaraw, we used to walk out here of an evening. For the unwary, I would note that there are two different routes on this little jut of land. One brings you to this World War II lookout post with modest parking and spectacular views. The other fork in the road will bring you to equally gorgeous vistas, but will involve driving along a road that is literally terrifying - precipitous drops, no hard shoulder, and definitely zero space to allow two cars to pass. This is the route we took first and I'm not too proud to admit that I stayed in the car while the more adventurous members of the family walked about calmly outside like it was perfectly safe and I wasn't totally over reacting!

anyway, once we got on the right path, parked and got to the crest of this little rise, the whole of Horn Head was laid out before us - and what a view it was! The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage notes that this is one of an original 83 lookout posts that stretched 'from Ballagan Point in Louth to Inishowen Head in Donegal'. As you look out the windows on its north side, you can see the distant, crumbling remains of its forerunner, the Napoleonic period signal tower. Unfortunately, none of us felt sufficiently energetic to contemplate a trudge across the bog to visit it (the lure of the nearby beaches was too much for the Chapples Minor), but you can read all about it in Dr Stuart Rathbone's rather excellent research into Irish Signal Stations [here].

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