Lenan Head Fort,

Lough Swilly Lough Swilly () in Ireland is a glacial fjord or sea inlet lying between the western side of the Inishowen Peninsula and the Fanad Peninsula, in County Donegal. Along with Carlingford Lough and Killary Harbour it is one of three glacial fjords ...

Inishowen Inishowen () is a peninsula in the north of County Donegal in Ireland. Inishowen is the largest peninsula on the island of Ireland. The Inishowen peninsula includes Ireland's most northerly point, Malin Head. The Grianan of Aileach, a ringfor ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

was built in 1895, initially with three 9.2 inch Breech Loading (BL) guns. Following recommendations of the Owen Committee in 1905, it was refitted in 1911 with two newer Mark X 9.2 inch models. Both guns were operational during the First World War. Lenan Fort from Mamore Hills 1991

Treaty port

On 6 December 1921, the

Anglo Irish Treaty The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty (), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain an ...

was concluded. It provided for the establishment of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

which happened on 6 December 1922. The Treaty included provisions by which the British would retain sovereignty over three strategically important ports known as the

Treaty ports Treaty ports (; ) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Qing dynasty of China (before th ...

. This included a number of coastal artillery defences, including the Defences of Lough Swilly, which were retained by the British Government on a ''Care and maintenance'' basis. All of the defences were fully transferred to the Republic of Ireland in 1938, with the last Royal Artillery personnel leaving on 10 October that year. The battery was manned by the Irish Army in the Second World War. The Irish coast artillery service was disbanded in 1952. The battery was disarmed and the guns scrapped in the 1950s.Stevenson, Ian, 1995. ''Two Irish Loughs'', Redan: Journal of the Palmerston Forts Society, Gosport, pp11-28 An unusual British fortified site, because it was started so late, it includes concrete caponiers in an extensive ditch system that climbs the hill to the headland.

References

Publications

* Col K W Maurice-Jones, 1959. The History of Coast Artillery in the British Army, Royal Artillery Institution, London Forts in the Republic of Ireland Buildings and structures in County Donegal {{Ireland-struct-stub