In early medieval times, the Vikings built a fortified settlement with a tower close to the sea. When the Anglo-Normans captured the town in 1170, this tower was rebuilt and the settlement was enclosed in stone walls.
When the Spanish spy Don Diego Ortiz visited Waterford in 1574, he said that the town was enclosed in a stone wall with a perimeter of about 1 mile, with seventeen defensive towers with cannons on them.
Today only six towers survive, along with long stretches of town wall, the largest collection of all Ireland.
This is the second of the six towers of the Waterford town walls still surviving, counting from the Reginald's Tower.
It's a cylindrical tower with crenellated top and lots of arrow-loops at all levels. Two segments of the town walls depart from this tower. The first segment is rather short and goes to the northwest (305°), the other segment, much longer and articulated, runs to the southeast (125°).
The only two doors to the tower are on the inner side of the structure, towards what once was the medieval town. One door is at the ground level, the other door is at the parapet level.
The segment of wall to the northwest once would join the southeast segment of wall that departs from the Double Tower.
A modern building of flats have been built right behind the segment of wall to the southeast and detracts a lot from the beauty of this medieval part of the town.
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