Built on a small natural terrace with steep cliffs plunging to the south, the tower stands approximately 75 metres from the sea at its closest point and 145 metres north of Carrigan Head’s tip. Whilst the surrounding rough pasture and rising ground to the north restrict visibility in that direction, the tower enjoys unobstructed views to the east, south and west; perfect for its original purpose as part of Britain’s coastal defence network during the Napoleonic Wars.

This remarkably well-preserved nineteenth-century structure rises nearly 12 metres high, built from roughly coursed sandstone rubble in a square plan measuring 5.9 metres on each side. The tower’s defensive features remain largely intact, including bartizans at the north and east corners supported by carved stone corbels, and a machicolation protecting the first-floor doorway on the southwest wall, which would have been accessed by a retractable ladder. The building retains many original architectural details: square-headed windows with limestone lintels featuring projecting keystones, a prominent chimney stack on the northwest wall topped with distinctive triangular stones set point-upwards in mortar, and coping stones around the parapet walls. Inside, though not accessible from ground level, fireplaces flanked by alcoves can be glimpsed through the windows, along with evidence of a low attic level between the first floor and roof.

The tower formed part of an extensive chain of over 80 signal stations constructed by the British Board of Ordnance in the early 1800s, designed to warn of approaching French invasion fleets through naval signal posts. This particular station communicated with towers at Malin Beg, 8.7 kilometres northwest, and St John’s Point, 16.7 kilometres southeast; the latter now demolished. Adjacent to the tower, traces of a rectangular enclosure contain fragments of stone walls that may have belonged to buildings predating or contemporary with the signal station. The system was abandoned by the mid-1810s when the French threat receded, though a Second World War lookout post, now in ruins, was later constructed southwest of the tower, demonstrating the site’s continued strategic importance across different eras of coastal defence.