Islay, Mull Of Oa, American Monument

The American Monument is a stone memorial tower around 20m tall, with a diameter of around 10m at the base, tapering towards a conical top. The tower occupies an isolated location, set on a raised rocky platform on a coastal cliff edge at around 130m above sea level, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on the Mull of Oa. The memorial commemorates some 550 American soldiers lost in two separate maritime disasters off the coast of Islay in 1918.

The monument was commissioned by the American Red Cross in 1918 and was designed and built in 1920, as inscribed on the monument, by architect Robert James Walker, and George Read & Son, builders, Catrine. It is a rubble stone tower constructed of dark grey local stone collected from the surrounding cliffs, with pale rubble contrasting banding and sandstone ashlar detailing.

Stone steps on the north east side of the tower lead to the primary dedication, a two metre tall brass plaque set within a large carved stone moulded architrave appearing as a doorway. Directly above is a small cast bronze American eagle clutching a wreath in both talons, partly set in a smaller roll-moulded architrave. The plaque is dedicated to the American soldiers and sailors lost in the wrecks of the transports SS Tuscania and HMS Otranto. It also bears a quote from a poem by Theodore O'Hara, "Bivouac of the Dead", published in 1850: "On Fame's Eternal camping ground, their silent tents are spread, While Glory keeps with solemn round, the bivouac of the dead."

Further up the tower in line with the plaque is an octagonal moulded date stone, inscribed with the date 1918 and two carvings of an American star and a Scottish thistle. Towards the top of the tower are two parallel bands of lighter rubble work with regularly spaced, small square niches with darker stone which appear as windows.

A small circular bronze wreath plaque is located at ground level, on a concrete plinth at the seaward side of the tower. This plaque contains a personal tribute to the memory of his fellow citizens from Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America from 4 March 1913 to 4 March 1921.