Spire of Lloyd, Kells, Co. Meath
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Where: Meath, Ireland
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When: Unknown
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Another contribution from the Eason Collection to end off the week. I have seen this spire / tower many times while driving but I have never had the opportunity to visit it. Is it a pure folly or was it intended for some more practical use?
With thanks in particular to contributions from B-59 and beachcomber we have learned that the tower doesn't have a specific practical use - other than perhaps as a viewing tower. Though built to resemble a lighthouse (and seemingly the "only inland lighthouse in Ireland"), the dedication inscription on the tower suggests that it was intended as a family memorial when commissioned by the then Marquess Headfort/Earl Bective. The NIAH entry tells us that it was designed and completed by architect Henry Aaron Baker c.1791.....
Photographer: Unknown
Collection: Eason Photographic Collection
Date: between ca. 1900-1939
NLI Ref: EAS_3214
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
Source: Flickr Commons
Views: 14506
With thanks in particular to contributions from B-59 and beachcomber we have learned that the tower doesn't have a specific practical use - other than perhaps as a viewing tower. Though built to resemble a lighthouse (and seemingly the "only inland lighthouse in Ireland"), the dedication inscription on the tower suggests that it was intended as a family memorial when commissioned by the then Marquess Headfort/Earl Bective. The NIAH entry tells us that it was designed and completed by architect Henry Aaron Baker c.1791.....
Photographer: Unknown
Collection: Eason Photographic Collection
Date: between ca. 1900-1939
NLI Ref: EAS_3214
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
Info:
Owner: National Library of Ireland on The CommonsSource: Flickr Commons
Views: 14506
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B-59
Seems to be a folly www.discoverireland.ie/Arts-Culture-Heritage/peoples-park...
B-59
archiseek.com/2014/tower-loyd-kells-co-meath/ says that it was used to view horse racing and the hunt in the nineteenth century
B-59
OSI map: maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,672217,776484,11,9
B-59
Photos in 2012: www.flickr.com/photos/jpbrady/6874935498/ www.flickr.com/photos/jpbrady/7021036793/
BeachcomberAustralia
Thomas Taylour, 1st Earl of Bective, (1724 - 1795) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Taylour,_1st_Earl_of_Bective - erected this thing in 1791 in memory of his father, Sir Thomas Taylor, 2nd Baronet (1686–1757). It's complicated ! - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquess_of_Headfort
BeachcomberAustralia
" ... Just outside the town of Kells on the road to Oldcastle is the hill of Lloyd, named after Thomas Lloyd of Enniskillen, who camped a large Williamite army here during the wars of 1688-91 against the Jacobites. Here also stands a towering building called the Tower of Lloyd, ... " From - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kells,_County_Meath , which I think is then muddled about who built it for whom. Ditto the archiseek site. I'm confused !
B-59
thepeerage.com/p16114.htm#i161135 confirms that Thomas Taylor, 2nd Bt. (b. circa 1690, d. October 1757) was the father of Thomas Taylour, 1st Earl of Bective (b. 20 October 1724, d. 14 February 1795). Since the spire was apparently built by the latter, archiseek and wikipedia must be mistaken.
BeachcomberAustralia
Droneview!! by MEATHCAM - youtu.be/kcyDZEApGtA . Great close-up of this aspect from 6:45. Fasten your seatbelts ...
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia Excellent work. Thank you.
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia Where is https://www.flickr.com/photos/swordscookie when you need him, I bet he knows everything about this spire. He is probably off again in another exotic location!!
BeachcomberAustralia
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland Many of the regular Flickroonies seem to be absent recently. Is there something on?
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia We will have to organise a party next week and invite everyone around!
CHG PRO PHOTOGRAPHY incorporating the APL archives
Isn't this tower on the grounds of Headfort prep school?!
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/apl-irl I think the school is on the other side of Kells.
oaktree_brian_1976
https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia baseball playoffs here, we lost though.
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] What about those Blue Jays?
bestfreepictures
Thanks [http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]] for having contributed to the All Free Pictures group pool! All pictures are accepted, provided that they have a Creative Commons or a Public Domain license. Please join the group and help us become the greatest Free Pictures group in Flickr!
oaktree_brian_1976
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland Jays lost to Cleveland, best of seven, down three games. Took game 4 but lost in game 5 (had to win four in a row to move on at that point). So were in Hockey mode now...
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
While there's a few stories there (viewing platform, family memorial, folly, battle commemoration), the dedication stone seems perhaps the most convincing - so have focused on that in the description. Map and tags also updated. Have a great weekend all...
nokadoe
I always understood that this tower was part of the Semaphore network which provided communications to the more remote parts of Ireland for military and other security purposes This entailed a line of towers visible to each other from which operatives sent messages by use of signal flags and the semaphore alphabet.
silverio10
Buena serie de fotos antiguas .
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Very interesting indeed https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]! Many other semaphore towers were semi-automated (and the semaphore signals quite large to be seen from distance), but it would be very cool indeed if we could confirm that the Kells tower was used for this purpose. Do you know if there was another similar tower nearby? Part of the relay system? (I understand that most semaphore towers weren't placed much more than 5 to 10 miles apart - given the requirement for line of sight and the telescope technology of the time...)
Karin Joy Passmore
In early times towers were everywhere. They were for communicating at a distance, for imprisonment, for defense. They were also status symbols. Always useful, never folly. Though the 2 towers in Bologna built by competing families..., were in some sense folly.