Survey sighting tower, Brackenagh West Rd, Ballymartin, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 is a Grade Record Only listed building in the Newry, Mourne and Down local planning authority area, Northern Ireland. Tower.
Survey sighting tower, Brackenagh West Rd, Ballymartin, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34
- WRENN ID
- calm-chalk-gilt
- Grade
- Record Only
- Local Planning Authority
- Newry, Mourne and Down
- Constituency
- South Down MP: Chris Hazzard (SF)
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Type
- Tower
- Irish grid reference
- J 323 204
- Coordinates
- 54.11579, -5.9775
- Source
- NI Environment Agency listing
Description
This sighting tower is of historical interest as it relates to the initial phase of the Mourne Scheme, representing a rare survival of late 19th-century surveying practices. Constructed between 1880 and 1899, the tower is made of shuttered concrete, notable for its inclusion of beach pebbles within the aggregate. It is a tapered structure of square cross-section, standing 3.35 metres high overall on a 1.37-metre square base, which itself is 1.07 metres high. Two threaded lugs are present at the top.
The tower functioned as an object pillar in the alignment of the Breckanagh Tunnel, part of the Belfast City & District Water Commissioners’ Mourne Scheme intended to supply water to Belfast. The tunnel, built by Messrs Fisher and Le Fanu, runs along the water conduit from the Kilkeel River (Silent Valley) to Dunnywater, and was completed in 1903 after significant challenges. This tower is one of five object pillars along this tunnel’s route, and the only known survivor. Access to the top was originally via a temporary wooden ladder.
Near the tower is a wrought-iron gate of standard Belfast Water Commissioners’ design, providing access to an adjacent field. It is considered to be of industrial archaeological interest. Records from the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) – WAT 1/3CG/3 and WAT 1/3CG/7 (BCDWC Minutes) and a drawing from the Department of the Environment Water Service (3A21.45) document the tower’s construction and purpose.
Local climate
Survey sighting tower, Brackenagh West Rd, Ballymartin, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,160 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 89% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 96% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 3 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 99% of listed buildings. Of these, 2 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- No flood data for this area
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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