J. McLoughlin of Pearse Street, turns in the wind above what looks, from certain angles, like an Arts and Crafts house. Look more closely and the original bulk of a Martello tower is still there beneath the brickwork casing and the conical roof of Wollscroft tiles. This is Hick's Tower, as locals have long called it, a former artillery fortification that was quietly converted into a private residence in the early twentieth century, its military origins dressed up rather than demolished.

The tower was one of twelve constructed north of Dublin as part of a coastal defence network built between 1804 and 1805 under the supervision of Colonel Benjamin Fisher of the Royal Engineers. Martello towers were squat, thick-walled circular structures designed to resist artillery fire and deter coastal landings, and by December 1805 all the Dublin-area towers were armed and complete. Each of the twelve northern towers mounted a single 24-pounder cannon, with no accompanying batteries. This particular tower, designated No. 5 in Paul Kerrigan's survey, was positioned to defend Malahide Strand and the mouth of the river, overlooking the entrance to Malahide Harbour. It was originally garrisoned by the Royal Artillery. By 1897 it had been disarmed and was leased by the War Department to Baron Talbot of Malahide; it was sold outright in 1908. The buyer was Frederick George Hicks, who gave it his name and commissioned its transformation into a residence in the Arts and Crafts style, a movement that favoured craftsmanship, natural materials, and domestic warmth, qualities not typically associated with coastal gun emplacements. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage dates the remodelling to around 1911 and credits Hicks as the architect. A return and stair block were added to the rear, windows were cut into the walls, and the structure was raised to two storeys with attic accommodation, though the tower itself survives to its original height.

The building sits on the Coast Road and can be observed from the roadside, though it is a private residence. The bronze galleon weather vane on the apex of the conical roof is the most distinctive detail to look for, visible against the sky when the light is clear. Taylor's map of the environs of Dublin, surveyed in 1816, records the tower in its early military form, and the contrast between that document and the present structure gives a reasonable sense of how substantially the conversion altered the tower's appearance while leaving its essential mass intact.