Photos: Fires On Bray Head Reveal Amazing World War 2 Landmark!
Recent Fires on Bray Head have uncovered an amazing World War 2 landmark EIRE 8! This landmark from the mid-1940’s had been totally covered by the massive amount of gorse on Bray Head and it is still in quite a reasonable condition! There are photos and links available below.
According to a post from the Irish Air Corps, “The signs were built by the Coast Watching Service by the summer of 1944 to warn “belligerent” aircraft that they were flying over a neutral country. Up to 150 tons of stone were used in some of the 83 signs dotted around the coast of Ireland. At the request of the United States air force the number of the nearby lookout post was added, turning the signs into air navigation aids. This assisted American bomber pilots in navigating across the Atlantic.”- Ref Michael Kennedy – Guarding Neutral Ireland.
These photographs were provided courtesy of the Garda Air Support Unit. That’s a specialised joint unit operated my Air Corps Pilots and members of An Garda Síochana.
A webpage that deals specifically with such markings, eiremearkings.org, says that roughly 85 of these signs were built. There’s a handy interactive map of the markings available on the site here. Although most have been demolished or overgrown with the passing of time, 15 in total have been found along the western coastline. Eight examples are still available to see around parts of Donegal as well as at Malin Head.
The Bray Head sign is one of a number of historical artefacts to be revealed as a result of the summer’s heatwave. That’s following the discovery of more pre-historic sites at Newgrange and the apparent childhood home of St Oliver Plunkett.
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