Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands
Date 2007
Event ID 930252
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/930252
Covesea Skerries Lighthouse
(Historic Engineering Works no. HEW 2529)
Following the loss of 16 vessels during a storm in the Moray Firth in November 1826 applications were made to the government for lights to be established at Covesea Skerries and Tarbat Ness but it was two decades before Covesea Skerries, one of three lighthouses on the Moray Firth, the
others being Cromarty and Chanonry, became operational in 1846. All three were designed by Alan Stevenson and Covesea Skerries was built by James Smith. The stone tower is about 118 ft high with the spiral access stair supported between the external wall and a central hollow shaft for the weights that drove the lamp machinery.
In 1845 a cast-iron beacon, based on the concept of Robert Stevenson’s at Carr Beacon in 1821 in Civil Engineering Heritage Scotland – Lowlands and Borders (7-12) but about 40 ft tall, was erected offshore to mark Halliman Skerries (see engraving). It is still in service (NJ 2140 7225).
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
