General view from ENE Photographic survey 20-Aug-1992. Digital image of B 76285.

Description General view from ENE Photographic survey 20-Aug-1992. Digital image of B 76285.

Date 1992

Catalogue Number SC 787658

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of B 76285

Scope and Content Keepers' accommodation and tower from east-north-east, Butt of Lewis Lighthouse, Western Isles This shows the brick lighthouse (right) with its triangular-paned lantern and railed parapet (used to give the keepers access when cleaning the glass). On the left is the two-storeyed principal keeper's house with its steps up to the main door, with the single-storeyed accommodation, engine house and stores block behind. The complex is enclosed by stone walls and gate posts with pyramidal tops. The present equipment in the tower was fitted in 1905, and flashed every 20 seconds. Before this apparatus, the light was probably 'fixed', giving a constant beam. The lamp was originally powered by vegetable or fish oil, before being converted to paraffin in 1869, and electrified in 1976. 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.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/787658

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap