View of weather station outbuildings from the E Photographic survey 20-Aug-1992. Digital image of B 76291 CN.

Description View of weather station outbuildings from the E Photographic survey 20-Aug-1992. Digital image of B 76291 CN.

Date 1992

Catalogue Number SC 787644

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of B 76291 CN

Scope and Content Weather station and domestic buildings from east, Butt of Lewis Lighthouse, Western Isles This shows the accommodation block for the keepers and their families (left), stores and engine house, and the weather station (right). All of the buildings are single-storeyed, whitewashed structures with cream-painted dressings. The station gardens have neat lawns and gravel paths, bordered by white edging stones with a perimeter wall. The unique weather conditions at the Butt of Lewis made weather observations a key part of the keepers' duties. From 1868 Scottish lightkeepers were required to keep exact meteorological records twice a day. The record would include measuring temperature and wind speed, along with observations of storms, wind, auroras, and, from 1889, fog. These records provided information for weather forecasts and other information used by mariners for navigation. Butt of Lewis Lighthouse was built in 1862 to designs by engineers David (1815-86) and Thomas Stevenson (1818-87) and stands on the northernmost tip of the Isle of Lewis, officially the windiest spot in the UK. The 37m-high red brick tower is surmounted by a black domed lantern, and has a light which flashes white every five seconds, with a range of 40km over the Atlantic Ocean. The keepers lived in white-painted, flat-roofed cottages around the tower until the complex was automated in 1998. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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