Volunteers restore giant EIRE signs placed in landscape to help wartime American pilots

A stone sign built to inform US pilots they were flying over Ireland during the Second World War was restored by a group of volunteers following a fire.

The Eire 8 sign on Bray Head was constructed out of up to 150 tons of stone.

There were 83 of these signs built around the coast of Ireland during World War II. They were put there by the Coast Watching Service to warn “belligerent” aircraft they were flying over a neutral country.

A fire on the Wicklow mountains in Summer 2018 severely damaged the sign, but it was given a makeover to restore it to its former glory.

A video of the work being completed features some fantastic aerial shots, that really shows the sign as it would have been seen by the US fighter pilots during the War.

The signs were originally built in 1944 and would have assisted American bomber pilots in navigating across the Atlantic.

Here is a photograph showing the damage that had been caused to the sign by years of erosion and the fire last summer.

It was taken by the Garda Air Support Unit, a specialised joint unit operated by Air Corps Pilots and members of An Garda Síochana.

Here is the sign now, after the restoration work was completed.

Take a look at the video from Neat Media of the stone sign being restored, and the view of it now from the sky.

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