General view of Bona Lighthouse from SE

Description General view of Bona Lighthouse from SE

Date 1983

Catalogue Number A 57642

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 804804

Scope and Content Bona Lighthouse, Caledonian Canal, Highland, from south-east This shows the lighthouse, probably built in the early 19th century, which works the entrance into Loch Dochfour from Loch Ness. The bayed block (left) originally contained the light and has an octagonal-shaped roof with a blind arch on the ground floor and a blind window on the first floor. The building is entered through an entrance porch with a hipped roof. Lighthouses were usually constructed with an adjacent light-keeper's house because the light-keeper always had to be available to tend the hand-operated light. His duties would include ensuring that the light did not run out of paraffin or carbide. The light-keeper was no longer required when the light became electrically-powered; at that point the house was converted into a private dwelling house. The Caledonian Canal was designed by Thomas Telford (1757-1834) and built between 1803 and 1822 at a cost of £840,000. It was the first example of a transport network funded by the government in Great Britain. The 96.5km-long canal provides a route for boats travelling between the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean as it runs from the Beauly Firth at Clachnaharry, Inverness, to Loch Linnhe at Corpach. Only 35.4km of this length is man-made while the other 61km runs through four lochs: Loch Dochfour, Loch Ness, Loch Oich and Loch Lochy. Unfortunately, at 4.2m deep, the canal was too small for most sea-going ships which led to it being altered and deepened between 1844 and 1847. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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