A manuscript entry from 1804 notes that the site chosen for the new tower sat on 'part of an old Danish fort', meaning the Napoleonic-era structure was raised on the remnants of something considerably older. That palimpsest quality, a coastal fortification planted on top of an earlier one, is easy to walk past without noticing.

The tower is number twelve in a chain of Martello towers built along the north Dublin coast, a series of round, thick-walled stone structures erected across Britain and Ireland from the early nineteenth century in anticipation of a French invasion that never came. Construction of the Dublin towers began in 1804 under Colonel Benjamin Fisher of the Royal Engineers, and by December 1805 all twelve were armed and complete, each mounting a single 24-pounder cannon. This one, built specifically 'for the defence of the Pier and Cove at Balbriggan', was manned by a full complement of Royal Artillerymen for the duration of the Napoleonic Wars. Once the threat passed, the garrison was reduced to a single local invalid Gunner, a common postwar arrangement along such coastal chains. The base batter, the thickened sloping base of the wall, is still visible, as are corbels above the entrance and pairs of musket holes on either side of the doorway. A recess for the cannon is cut into the west side. A photograph from the Valentine collection, taken sometime between 1929 and 1950, shows the tower still largely intact, complete with parapet, chimney, and flagstaff. The parapet is now gone, and the stone is said to have been repurposed in the construction of houses on Drogheda Street in Balbriggan.

The tower stands on a slight promontory with the ground to the west and south now landscaped into a public park, so access is straightforward. The first-floor doorway is no longer reachable from outside, but the exterior details, the musket loops, the cannon recess, and the base batter, are legible at close range. The damaged state of the parapet makes it easier, rather than harder, to read the structure's history of reuse and quiet neglect.