Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands

Date 2007

Event ID 963048

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/963048

Pentland Skerries Lighthouses

(Institute Civil Engineers Historic Engineering Works no. HEW 1985)

The lighthouses of Orkney represent an important civil engineering contribution to the island and maritime safety. The most historic is the 70 ft tall North Ronaldsay Lighthouse built by the Northern Lighthouse Board in 1789, using local stone and workmen from Leith, only three years after the Board was founded. This lighthouse was closely followed by Pentland Skerries in 1794 to the south at the eastern entrance to the hazardous Pentland Firth. The engineer for both lighthouses was Thomas Smith, who developed, made and installed arrays of facetted mirror-glass parabolic reflector oil lamps.

At Pentland Skerries, Smith directed the erection of two circular masonry towers, 60 ft and 80 ft high, and installed 66 reflector lamps in total. The towers were sited 60 ft apart as a distinction to mariners. In the 1820s they were rebuilt under Robert Stevenson’s direction in local stone 100 ft apart, the taller being 118 ft high. In 1848 lenses were introduced. The lower light was discontinued in 1895 on the introduction of group flashing lights. The light was converted to electrical operation in 1939.

R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.

Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.