Crichton Tower, Gad Island, Crom Demesne

Summary

Circular castellated folly tower built 1847–8 on a raised circular platform covering most of Gad Island as it existed pre 1847.

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Description

A circular castellated tower built as a folly in 1847–1848 on Gad Island, a natural rock outcrop in Lough Erne lying 200m west of the Inishfendra shoreline and 170m north-east of the Mullynacoagh shore. The tower is built upon a raised circular platform with a stone parapet wall, 0.017 acres (0.007ha) in extent, covering the whole area of the island as it existed prior to 1847. The island is now 1.08 acres (0.44ha) in area and circa 27m in diameter after the 1884–1892 drop in the lake level.

The tower contains two stories surmounted by a corbel table with crenellated parapet and a projecting bartizan on the east side. The entrance is on the north side through a round-headed door opening leading into a room occupying the whole of the ground floor. This room is lit by three window openings, on the north-west, east and south sides. Each has a stone mullion and formerly contained metal casements with leaded lights. The window boards and lintels of these windows were wooden, as indeed was the door, but all have since been removed by people making campfires in the tower. The walls of the room are covered with pebbles embedded into mortar giving the room a rustic effect and probably giving rise to the name ‘hermit’s tower’ by which this building was generally called in the last century.

The ground-floor ceiling is dome vaulted and in the centre of this ceiling there is a circular opening which formerly permitted access to the first floor, apparently via a wooden spiral staircase. The first-floor room is lit by loops and narrow windows, some of which retain their original metal window frames. On the east side is a fireplace opening with the bartizan or turret above serving as a chimney stack. The roof over the first floor was flat and composed of wood (now vanished), and access to this was apparently by a staircase running along the inside of the wall.

The tower was built between June 1847 and June 1848 at a total cost of £204.11.9d (Crom Expense Accounts, 1847–1876). Of this sum £144.9.1d was paid to Handley for masonry work (in seven instalments), £35.1.6d for plumber’s work, £6.15.2d for timber work, £2.2.1d for metal sashes, £1.0.0d for glazing, £2.1.0d for ashlar floor, and £0.17.6d for painting. A further sum of £8.5.8d was spent on building the parapet wall around the tower.

In 1856 there were plans to carry out alterations to the tower, evidently in order to make it more comfortable. There are two drawings of proposed alterations in the Crom papers (see HLS Figure 66) and both show that it was intended to insert many more windows in the building, particularly on the first floor, while a coat of arms or crest was to be placed over the door.

It has been suggested that the tower was built to give relief to the local poor during the famine years. If true, it would appear rather an expensive way of providing such relief. The decision to build it may have been taken as early as 1839: a newspaper report on the second visit to Crom of the Viceroy, Lord Carlisle, states that ‘Crichton tower…was erected to commemorate the birth of Lord Erne’s eldest son’. The third Earl of Erne’s eldest son, John Henry, later the fourth Earl, was born on 16 October 1839.

During the 19th century the tower served as an observation platform for viewing the boat races on Lough Erne. No doubt, afternoon teas were also served here though no photographic evidence of such activity survives. The tower is depicted in the oil painting ‘Under Sail’ in Crom Castle where it is shown to have supported a flag staff attached to the bartizan tower. In 1893, according to a newspaper cutting, the tower was lit by jubilee lamps in the shape of an earl’s coronet to celebrate the coming of age of Viscount Crichton. At the same time huge bonfires were lit on Inishfendra and Derryvore, cannons fired and fireworks set off on Inishfendra.

It is evident from a drawing in the Elton papers that in the early 18th century there were plans to built a tower on the island (Proby Collection at Elton Hall: Pearce and Vanbrugh drawings, published by the Roxburgh Society). The undated drawing by the famous architect Sir Edward Lovett Pearse ‘for Mrs Creichtoun to be built on a sunk island in Lough Erne’ depicts a solid stone platform 14.33m square (12.19m inside the parapet wall) supporting a hexagonal tower with filleted roof and a fine doorway with a Gibbs surround (see HLS Figure 65). The tower was to have rectangular windows on the ground floor and square openings on the first floor, a height of 5.72m to the eaves parapet and a diameter of 9.45m. This building, intended as a ‘hexagonal island gazebo for Mrs Creichtoun’ was never actually constructed, possibly because of the early death of Brigadier Creichtoun in 1728.

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