The tower sits on flat ground at the southwestern end of the dramatic Sliabh Liag sea cliffs, about 160 metres from the coastline, surrounded by unenclosed blanket bog. Built as part of an extensive British coastal defence system during the Napoleonic Wars, it was one of more than 80 signal stations constructed in the first decade of the 1800s to warn of approaching French invasion fleets. The tower originally communicated with neighbouring stations at Dawros Head, 12.6 kilometres to the northeast (now collapsed), and Malin Beg, 7.6 kilometres to the south-southwest, which remains visible in clear weather.

The square-plan tower stands nearly 12 metres tall, built from roughly coursed rubble sandstone with sections of roughcast lime render still clinging to its exterior walls. Despite centuries of Atlantic weather, the structure remains remarkably well-preserved, though the top of the northwest wall and parts of the machicolation over the first-floor doorway have collapsed, possibly from a lightning strike. The first-floor entrance, originally accessed by retractable ladder, features its original cut limestone surround with a projecting keystone lintel. Pairs of square-headed windows punctuate the northeast and southwest walls at both floor levels, whilst intact bartizans protect the eastern and southern corners, each supported by three cut stone corbels. A parapet wall with surviving sections of cut stone coping runs around the tower’s summit.

Near the cliff edge north of the tower, the foundations of two small rectangular buildings remain visible as low, grassed-over rubble stone walls. Whether these structures served the signal tower’s garrison, predate its construction, or were built after its abandonment in the mid-1810s remains unclear. A small circular mound of rubble stone nearby may be the remains of a lime kiln used during the tower’s construction. The entire complex, situated about 1.2 kilometres north-northwest of an early ecclesiastical site associated with St. Columbkille, was originally accessed via a long laneway from the southeast, though this track has long since become overgrown. When the threat of French invasion diminished after Napoleon’s defeat, the entire signalling system was abandoned, leaving these towers as striking monuments to a brief but tense period in Irish and British history.