Field Visit
Date August 1977
Event ID 575687
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/575687
This lighthouse-tower stands on the tip of Carraig Fhada, a low rocky promontory about 1.6km SW of Port Ellen harbour, and its beacon provides a fixed light for the main approaches to the harbour. A lengthy inscription in the W wall above the doorway includes the date 1832 and records that the tower was erected to the memory of Lady Ellinor Campbell by her husband, Walter Frederick Campbell.
It is of stepped L-plan form comprising a three-storeyed and parapeted main block, which is about 5.5m square on plan, and at the NE angle a 3.4m square stair-tower of slightly lesser height. The walls, which measure 0.8m in thickness at base, are constructed of limewashed rubble masonry; the quoins are offset, and the other external details are designed in a variety of architectural styles. The doorway in the N re-entrant has a shoulder-headed lintel, while a formal entrance in the landward-facing W wall is set within an elaborate roll-moulded surround which has a hood-moulded four-centred arched head; above this doorway is the date and the commemorative panel (supra). The windows generally are round-headed single-light openings with chamfered external surrounds, and some retain evidence of fixed iron frames and glazing-bars. The openings are paired on the first floor while the second floor is lit by a Y-traceried oriel window in the S wall. The parapets of the main block and stair-turret are borne on triple courses of continuous corbelling above a row of dentils.
The stair is of stone turnpike construction and ascends to a landing just below the second floor. Thence a ladder gives access to the flat roof where the frame of the modernised beacon and lens-mechanism is mounted. The principal internal feature of interest is a large chimney-piece in the E wall of the first-floor room whose four-centred arched opening and moulded stone surround echo the late Gothic treatment of the W doorway.
RCAHMS 1984, visited August 1977.
