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Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 606180
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/606180
The first light at Cloch Lighthouse was installed on its completion in 1797 by Robert Stevenson acting for the
Cumbrae Lighthouse Trust’s engineer Thomas Smith. This was four years after the present lighthouse on Little
Cumbrae had been modernised by the Trust.
Cloch light was improved in 1825 and 1903 and, by means of a wireless innovation by C. & D. A. Stevenson
in 1930 which attracted a Royal Society of Arts award, became a talking lighthouse in poor visibility. The light is
no longer used and the building is now a private residence. Ships now use a buoyed channel.
In the 19th century the distance between Cloch and Little Cumbrae lighthouses was used for speed trials. The
practice of ‘Running the Lights’ became an event on the Clyde for any new steamer, and a fast ship could run the Cloch distance of approximately 16 miles in 48 minutes (17.4 knots).
R Paxton and J Shipway
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
