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The tower was designed by William Burn and constructed 1848-50 (although not fully finished until October 1861) as an unemployment relief project by Lord Dufferin. The tower was named in honour of his mother Helen Selina Blackwood by her son Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 5th Baron of Dufferin and Ava (Lord Dufferin).

The tower has taken on an unforeseen poignancy, as an almost exact replica of it, the Ulster Tower, was built at Thiepval in 1921 to honour the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division who fell at the Battle of the Somme. Clandeboye Estate was used for army training during the First World War, and the 36th Division trained beside Helen's Tower before leaving for France - Link gives further information and a picture of the tower in Thiepval.

At least two poems titled 'Helen's Tower' were written on the instruction of Lord Dufferin. Two well known verses by Tennyson and Browning I reproduce below:

HELEN'S TOWER by ALFRED TENNYSON

HELEN’S TOWER, here I stand,
Dominant over sea and land.
Son’s love built me, and I hold
Mother’s love in letter’d gold.
Love is in and out of time,
I am mortal stone and lime.
Would my granite girth were strong
As either love, to last as long
I should wear my crown entire
To and thro’ the Doomsday fire,
And be found of angel eyes
In earth’s recurring Paradise.

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HELEN'S TOWER by ROBERT BROWNING

Who hears of Helen's Tower, may dream perchance
How the Greek Beauty from the Scaean Gate
Gazed on old friends unanimous in hate,
Death-doom'd because of her fair countenance.

Hearts would leap otherwise, at thy advance,
Lady, to whom this Tower is consecrate!
Like hers, thy face once made all eyes elate,
Yet, unlike hers, was bless'd by every glance.

The Tower of Hate is outworn, far and strange:
A transitory shame of long ago,
It dies into the sand from which it sprang;
But thine, Love's rock-built Tower, shall fear no change:
God's self laid stable earth's foundations so,
When all the morning-stars together sang.

Created: Wed, 29 Sep 2010, Updated: Wed, 29 Sep 2010