A Brief History of The Fishery Watchtower

Introduction

After the Ashworth brothers Thomas and Edmund acquired the Galway Fishery in 1852 for £5,000, they promptly began construction on the now-iconic landmark known as the Fishery Watchtower/Tower Station/Salmon House until it was completed in 1853^i,ii,iii. This would be the world’s first commercial salmon fishery^iv.

Standing three stories tall, the ground floor was built of limestone with the upper floors being comprised of brick which had been taken from the ballast of cargo ships docked in the port^v. Depending on source, the premises are listed as (mid-to-late) Victorian or Italianate in architectural style which is not unusual given the stylistic overlap^{vi,vii,viii,ix}.

The building served three purposes: draft netting, a practice where a net was pulled across the river with one side connected to the land and the other side to a boat; for the tracking of fish stocks; and, to increase the chance of spotting individuals illegally poaching fish^x,xi,xii. Given its first and main function listed—draft netting—the ground floor contains a slope. This was intended to drain away water taken in from the nets and fish that were caught^xiii.

Modern Developments

In 1978, the Irish State acquired the site and ended its functioning. In the coming years, the building would become more weathered and uninhabitable until it eventually fell into severe disrepair. With this, the Galway Civic Trust sought to have the site repaired in collaboration with Western Regional Fisheries Board/Central Fisheries Board (now the IFI, the board held/hold ownership of the site on behalf of the State) and members of a Community Employment Scheme in the 1990s with the restoration being complete in 1999^{xiv,xv,xvi,xvii}. Before restoration was complete however, a small museum was being operated inside. Leased by the Civic Trust from the Fisheries from 1997, this would continue until eventually, the bridge became too damaged to continue being used as a museum in 2006 and then, in 2007, the premises was again shut down until restoration of its bridge was complete. Informally, the re-opening of the museum occurred in 2014 however its official re-opening occurred in 2015^xviii,xix,xx. To achieve this, funding was not made available by Failte Ireland which meant that support from the Galway City Council was necessary^xxi. In recent years, the museum was re-closed. However, work on the site has not ended, with the Galway City Council being granted €4,000 in 2023 as part of the Built Heritage Investment Scheme for conservational efforts relating to its historic window glass^xxii.

While temporarily closed, the bridge continues to serve a purpose, with people increasingly using its railings for love locks.

Potential Errors

Where the Civic Trust’s blog post claims that the bridge became inaccessible in 2006, the IFI’s post lists the year in 2007^xxiii,xxiv. It is likely that this discrepancy has emerged where the Civic Trust’s leasing of the site was no longer fit for purpose due to the deterioration for larger events than the IFI would organise which explains the year difference. However, this is speculative; both groups have a valid authority in their statements being on both sides of the lease agreements which means that I cannot be sure in assessing publicly available sources alone which claim is correct.

According to local historian Peadar O’Dowd, the building had been operating for salmon netting since the 1860s until its closure by the Irish State^xxv. However, this was possibly a typing error given that its primary function was for netting which would more likely mean that it served this function from the mid-to-late 1850s after construction was finished.

Maurice Semple claims that the earliest known photograph of the “fish house” was taken in 1850^xxvi. Unless an image exists of a building previously located here (if there were one), this must be an error given that construction on the building had not been commenced by this point. In his other works containing images which I have access to at this time, the second Claddagh Bridge exists—this again suggests that the images were more recently taken than 1850 given that the bridge was erected in 1887^xxvii,xxviii. In my own research, the earliest photograph which I could find of the region is dated around 1890 with the bridge also in full view^xxix.

End Notes

¹ Brendan McGowan and Tanya Williams, Galway City: Through Time (Amberly Publishing, 2013), 74.
² William Henry, River Corrib Guide (2022), 32.
³ William Henry, Galway: Walking Through History (William Henry, 2020), 206–207.
⁴ McGowan and Williams, Galway City: Through Time, 74.
⁵ Henry, Galway, 207.
⁶ Henry, River Corrib Guide, 32.
⁷ Henry, Galway, 207.
⁸ Vinny Fanneran, ‘Galway Mystery Icon Explained as Light Shed on Unique Old Building’, Ireland News, Galway Beo, 8 August 2024, https://www.galwaybeo.ie/news/ireland-news/galway-mystery-icon-explained-light-9468873.
⁹ The Fishery Watchtower, TOWNPARKS(ST. NICHOLAS’ PARISH), Galway, GALWAY, Survey Data 30318018 (National Built Heritage Service, 2028), https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/30318018/the-fishery-watchtower-townparksst-nicholas-parish-galway-galway.
¹⁰ Editors of Galway Tourism, ‘Galway Fisheries Watchtower Museum’, Galway Tourism, n.d., accessed 28 August 2025, https://www.galwaytourism.ie/galway-fisheries-watchtower-museum/.
¹¹ Henry, River Corrib Guide, 32.
¹² Henry, Galway, 207.
<sup13 Declan O’Shea, ‘Fishery Watchtower Museum’, Galway Civic Trust – Dúchas Na Gaillimhe, 3 December 2021, https://galwaycivictrust.ie/index.php/2021/12/03/fishery-watchtower-museum/.
¹⁴ Henry, Galway, 207.
¹⁵ Editors of Inland Fisheries Ireland, ‘President Higgins Launches Refurbished Fishery Watchtower | Inland Fisheries Ireland’, News, 2 April 2015, https://www.fisheriesireland.ie/news/notices/president-higgins-launches-refurbished-fishery-watchtower.
¹⁶ Editors of Galway Tourism, ‘Galway Fisheries Watchtower Museum’.
¹⁷ McGowan and Williams, Galway City: Through Time, 74.
¹⁸ Editors of Galway Advertiser, ‘Fisheries Tower at Wolfe Tone Bridge Due for Renovation’, Galway Advertiser, 22 May 2014, https://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/69605/fisheries-tower-at-wolfe-tone-bridge-due-for-renovation.
¹⁹ Connolly, ‘Fisheries Watch Tower’, 18 May 2014, http://catherineconnolly.com/fisheries-watch-tower/.
²⁰ Editors of Inland Fisheries Ireland, ‘President Higgins Launches Refurbished Fishery Watchtower | Inland Fisheries Ireland’.
²¹ Editors of Inland Fisheries Ireland, ‘President Higgins Launches Refurbished Fishery Watchtower | Inland Fisheries Ireland’.
²² Briain Kelly, ‘Galway Allocated over €350,000 for Conservation of Built Heritage’, Galway Daily, 10 March 2023, https://www.galwaydaily.com/news/galway-allocated-over-e350000-for-conservation-of-built-heritage/.
²³ O’Shea, ‘Fishery Watchtower Museum’; Editors of Inland Fisheries Ireland, ‘President Higgins Launches Refurbished Fishery Watchtower | Inland Fisheries Ireland’.
²⁴ Editors of Inland Fisheries Ireland, ‘President Higgins Launches Refurbished Fishery Watchtower | Inland Fisheries Ireland’.
²⁵ Peadar O’Dowd, Galway: In Old Photographs (Gill & Macmillan, 2003), 109.
²⁶ Maurice Semple, Around and About Galway (1995), 39.
²⁷ Maurice Semple, Some Galway Memories (1973), 32,36.
²⁸ Seán Spellissy, The History of Galway: City & County (Celtic Bookshop, 1999), 85.
²⁹ McGowan and Williams, Galway City: Through Time, 74.