Military History < Back

The chequered military history of Loop Head can be pieced together from relics dating from the 15th century (see Carrigaholt Castle) right up to the 20th. Several gun batteries such as the one at Kilcredaun, built in 1814, were erected around the coast to help repel a French invasion during the Napoleonic wars.

You’ll also find vestiges of Loop Head’s WW2 defences. At the tip of the peninsula you’ll see the word ‘EIRE’ in large, whitewashed letters. There were 83 such signs along the Irish coast, alerting pilots that they were entering neutral airspace. The one at Loop Head, put there in 1943, had all but disappeared until a team of local volunteers excavated it in 2011.

Near the Eire sign is the ruin of a WW2 Lookout Post, from which local members of the Defence Forces’ Coast Watching Service scanned for military activities at sea. There is a similar Lookout Post at Kilcredaun.