Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 574754
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/574754
This lighthouse was built in 1828 for the Northern Lighthouse Board by Edinburgh contractors Brebner and Scott, to the design and under the direction of Robert Stevenson for about £9000. The stone tower is 70 ft high and stands above cliffs 260 ft high. The light was first exhibited in 1830 and was novel in operating as an ‘intermittent’ light by means of the sudden closing and opening of two intersecting opaque drums enclosing the apparatus which were moved vertically in opposite directions by machinery. Changes were made to the light through the years and in 1971 the tower was modernised and electricity installed. The fog horn, now disused, dates from 1894.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
