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Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands
Date 2007
Event ID 929425
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/929425
Girdle Ness Lighthouse
The lighthouse at Girdle Ness was designed by Robert Stevenson and built by John Gibb of Aberdeen. Stevenson’s son Alan was the resident engineer and Alexander Slightthe resident inspector. It became operational in October 1833.
It is the only lighthouse in Scotland to have shown twin fixed lights. These were spaced vertically 70 ft apart at 115 ft and 185 ft, respectively, above sea level. The lower light was enclosed in the galleried lantern at a point where the wall thickness of the tower was stepped, and was supported on a corbelled masonry balcony. This lantern was a 28-sided polygonal structure which was glazed towards the sea, but infilled with cast-iron plates on the landward side.
The upper light is about 119 ft above ground level. In 1833 both lights were produced from Argand burners placed in the focus of 21 in. diameter silvered-copper parabolic reflectors, the upper light comprising 18 reflector lamps. In 1847, when a dioptric light was installed, the original lantern was replaced and transferred to Inchkeith Lighthouse.
In 1890 the lower fixed light was removed and the upper light was replaced by a single revolving light of 200 000 candle power. This light flashed twice every 20 seconds and had a nominal range of 22 miles.
The tower with its distinctive silhouette in the style of a minaret and the distinctive and generous accommodation for the light keepers form an impressive architectural group and one of Stevenson’s finest works. The castironwork of the panels at the rear of the lower lantern, the external ladders and the handholds are finely detailed and unique to this lighthouse. The unattributed ironwork is decorated with birds, crocodiles and rustic style bamboo balustrade with animal feet. Lion masks embellish the
joints between the astragals of the upper lantern.
The light is still operational and, with all Northern Lighthouse Board lighthouses, is now automated from a control room at its headquarters, 84 George Street, Edinburgh.
R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
