PAUL ARNOLD ARCHITECTS

The Martello towers constructed in the greater Dublin area were part of a network of twenty-six fortifications stretching fifty-seven kilometres from Bray in the south to Balbriggan in the north and part of a wider scheme of forty-five towers sited around the Irish coastline including Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Cork, Galway, Clare and Donegal built in response to the threat of invasion by Napoleon in the early nineteenth century. The towers along the coastline between Sandymount and Bray, including the Seapoint tower, were built between June 1804 and December 1805.

The circular defensive gun tower typology is traceable back to C16th with the name thought to originate from Cape Martella in Corsica. The Seapoint tower design follows Spanish designs of defensive towers on Minorca. Martello towers were constructed extensively along the south and southeast coasts of England, and can also be found in Scotland, the Channel Islands, Sicily, South Africa, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, Bermuda, Canada and the United States of America.

The Seapoint Martello tower stands approximately 26 feet high (from external ground level) and has a diameter of approximately 38 feet is of similar dimensions and armament to the surviving Dublin towers of Bray, Loughlinstown River and Sandycove. The towers built in south Dublin were con- structed with granite ashlar, whereas the north Dublin towers tend to be built of local rubble masonry and finished with a lime-based render.