Its two chimneys, at just over 207 metres, are visible over much of Dublin, making them well-known landmarks and some of the tallest structures in Ireland.

At the time the site was a wooden platform known pragmatically as “The Piles”, at the seaward end of the Ballast Office Wall embankment.

Pidgeon opened an eatery to provide refreshments for the workers and the growing number of travelers arriving into Dublin Bay.

The hotel building was converted into the officers’ accommodation within the fort, which then grew over the next hundred years to include an armory, a hospital, and trenches crossed by drawbridges.

In 1897, the military complex was sold to the Dublin Corporation and developed into a sewage processing facility, as well as the city’s first major electrical power generating station.

The lighthouse, completed in 1767 when construction of the Great South Wall was just beginning, stood originally at the edge of a natural tidal pool at the entrance to Dublin Harbor known as “Poole Begge”, which was surrounded at low tide with sand bars.

Uniquely among power stations run by the Electricity Supply Board, all three units in the thermal plant can currently fire on oil or gas.

[4][5] The thermal station chimneys completed in 1971 are among the tallest structures in Ireland and are visible from most of Dublin city.

Dublin City Councillor and historian Dermot Lacey began a process to list the chimneys for preservation to safeguard their future after the Station was to close in 2010.