St Abb's Head. Photographic copy of plans, elevations and sections of apparatus for St. Abb's Head. Sheet No. 2

Description St Abb's Head. Photographic copy of plans, elevations and sections of apparatus for St. Abb's Head. Sheet No. 2

Date 10/10/1859

Collection Records of the Northern Lighthouse Board, Edinburgh, Scotland

Catalogue Number E 25891 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copy of DC 9047

Copies SC 783957

Scope and Content Photographic copy of plans elevations and sections of lighting apparatus, St Abb's Head Lighthouse, Scottish Borders This shows a section and plan of the frame which supports the prisms and lenses which surround the light (top right), one side of the lens, and a plan view of the whole optic (centre). The drawings on the right of the plan show a section of the lens, and another part of the framework. Rows of prisms around a central 'bull's eye' lens revolve around the light to create a flashing effect. The lighthouse on St Abb's Head stands on top of 91m-high cliffs, which are often hidden from the view of shipping by dense fog. The light on top of the tower shines from a height of 78m, as the lighthouse is reached by a flight of steps from the lightkeepers' houses on the cliffs above. St Abb's Head Lighthouse was built in 1862 to designs by engineers David (1815-86) and Thomas Stevenson (1818-87). The squat tower on its single-storeyed base is surmounted by a triangular-paned lantern with domed top, and stands in a dramatic cliff-top position overlooking the North Sea near Coldingham. The complex also includes a foghorn on a single-storeyed base, and a two-storeyed, M-gabled four-bayed cottage which was used for keepers' accommodation. The light was automated in 1993, and the keepers' houses were adapted for use as holiday homes in 1999. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Medium Colour negative

Accession Number 1987/10

External Reference M/68/201

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