History
The Post Office SHF site at Bishops Court appears to have been established around 1968 to provide a link for the Linesman/Mediator RADAR system. Documents at BT Archives indicate that a link from "Killard Point" to West Drayton was to be in-service by November 1968. Although Killard Point was an operational radar facility during the 1950s the new Type 84 was installed at Bishops Court. Other sites in the Linesman system were inter-connected but Bishops Court appears to have required only the one link to London.
The original arrangement is believed to have involved a single-hop link to Ballygomartin, continuing via Enochs Hill and the main UK network. From the 1980s alternative routes would have been available via Slieve Croob and we understand equipment was installed to allow the analogue radar signal to be interfaced with the digital links then in use - however by this stage "plot extraction" techniques allowed a lower-bandwidth connection to be used. The radar station closed completely by the late 1980s.
Bishops Court is unlikely to have developed into a general-purpose site within the Post Office/BT network however it was included in 1970s and 1980s maps, along with the other Linesman sites. From other resouces it has been possible to confirm the exact location of the link tower, very close to the Type 84 radar. The associated building still exists.
