Archaeology Notes

Event ID 794609

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/794609

ND47NE 11.00 46496 78415

ND47NE 11.01 ND 46480 78397 Keepers Cottage 1

ND47NE 11.02 ND 46518 78400 Keepers Cottage 2

ND47NE 11.03 ND c. 4649 7841 Old Lighthouse

ND47NE 11.04 ND c. 46563 78468 Rocket Staff

Lighthouse [NAT]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1971.

(Location cited as ND 465 783). Muckle Skerry, Pentland Skerries lighthouses, completed 1833 by engineers Thomas Smith and Robert Stevenson. Two towers replacing the original lighthouses of 1794. Of similar construction but differing heights, both are tapering circular-section structures with corbelled walkways. The shorter one rises from a circular one-storey building, and has carried a foghorn since 1909. There are single-storey keepers' cottages.

J R Hume 1977.

Double lights 80 and 60ft high respectively and 60ft apart were built on the Muckle Skerry by Orkney masons supervised by Robert Stevenson as his first major work for the Northern Lighthouse Board. Revolving lights were not provided although Stevenson asked for this (Munro 1979, 59, 64).

The station was rebuilt, along with others, between 1821 and 1830 in a 'more permanent' form and accord with the Commissioners' 'national establishment' policy. A dioptric or catadioptric light was fitted in 1848, and the burning of mineral oil (paraffin) introduced (initially on a trial basis) in 1870. The double light was discontinued in 1895 on the installation of powerful group-flashing lights. Improved accommodation was provided in recent years and the light was electrified (maximum candlepower 710,000) in 1958.

The rock station was attacked by aerial bombing in 1941 and the wife and seven children of the Principal Keeper were buried nearby after their death from diptheria in 1877.

[For photograph of the twin towers, see Munro 1979, 212].

R W Munro 1979.

The heights of the original two towers are cited as 116ft (the more northerly) and 94ft 6ins respectively. They were first lit on 1 October 1794.

K Allardyce and E M Hood 1986.

Name: Pentland Skerries II (1833)

Location: N58 41 W2 55 Pentland Firth, 5 miles NE of Duncansby Head

Designed and built: Robert Stevenson

Light first exhibited: 1833

Description: taller of two original stone towers, now painted white

Height of light above MHW: 171ft (52m)

Height of tower: 118ft (36m)

Light source and characteristics: W Gp Fl (1) ev 30 secs. 250W metal halide lamp: 710,000 cp: 25nm nominal range

Fog warning apparatus: siren (1) ev 45 secs

Manning: unwatched (automatic since 31 March 1994), monitored from Northern Lighthouse Board HQ, Edinburgh

Rebuilt from the taller of two original towers with improved optical apparatus. Listed

C Nicholson 1995.

This lighthouse has been automated.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 18 May 2000.

This lighthouse guards the E entrance to the Pentland Firth, being built on the Pentland Skerries, a group of islands placed situated roughly central to the 'Hell's Mouth'.

In 1794, Thomas Smith and Robert Stevenson built two lighthouses on the island. Built to heights of 59ft [18m] and 79ft [24.1m] respectively, their optics contained 66 reflectors in both cases. In the 1820's, both towers were rebuilt in more permanent form. Stone from Herston was used to increase the height of the higher tower to over 100ft [30.5m]. The optics were changed to refracting lenses in 1847 for increased efficiency. The lower light was discontinued in 1895, but a foghorn was mounted on the tower. The lighthouse was automated in 1994.

S Krauskopf 2003.