Sir, – I am sure Catherine Cleary’s review of House restaurant in Howth (Magazine, January 14th) is absolutely accurate, but the reference to Captain Bligh designing the North Bull Wall at the end of his seafaring career is not quite correct.
In 1800 Bligh was invited to survey Dublin Bay. A brilliant navigator and cartographer, he produced a splendid chart. He suggested a wall for the north side, but the wall built in 1819 (two years after Bligh’s death) was to a different design, by George Halpin, Senior, Inspector of Works at the Ballast Board (then the Port Authority) and surveyor Francis Giles.
Bligh returned to naval duties in 1801 and fought under Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen. He later went on to have interesting experiences in Australia, but that’s another story! - Yours, etc,