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Field Visit
Date 15 July 1931
Event ID 1098278
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1098278
O1d Lighthouse, Isle of May.
In 1636 the building of a lighthouse on the island was entrusted to James Maxwell of Innerwick, Alexander Cunningham of Barnes, and John Cunningham his son, who was feuar of the island (1). From the initials given below it may be inferred that it was erected by Alexander Cunningham. The lower half of the structure still stands on the summit of the rocky hillock immediately east of the modern lighthouse. It is a tower, 24 feet 5 inches square, built of local rubble with freestone quoins and rising to a height of 20 feet. Originally it rose to 40 feet and provision was made on the top for a fire of coals (2), but the present roof and battlement date from 1886. The entrance and the only window face south, the former showing traces of a lugged and moulded architrave, the latter of margins with chamfered arrises. Above the entrance is a large moulded panel-space surmounted by a cornice, but the panel itself is missing and has been replaced by part of a pediment bearing a sun in glory and the date 1636, with which are also the two portions of an angle water-spout in the form of a lion supporting a shield. Internally, the tower contains a single barrel vaulted chamber, which is L-shaped on plan on account of a projection within the south-west corner forming a little lobby, into which the entrance opens, and from which a newel-stair rises to the upper part. The north wall of the chamber has a fireplace with plane jambs, a scrolled frieze, and a moulded cornice. In the middle of the frieze is a cartouche flanked by the initials A.C., and bearing: A shake-fork with a mullet between the prongs, for Cunningham.
RCAHMS 1933, visited 15 July 1931.
(1) Reg. Mag. Sig., s.a., No. 500, and 1644, No. 1575. (2) Sibbald's History of Fife, etc. (ed.1803), p.100
