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Berneray, Barra Head Lighthouse
Hand Crane (19th Century), Quay (19th Century), Quay Crane (19th Century)
Site Name Berneray, Barra Head Lighthouse
Classification Hand Crane (19th Century), Quay (19th Century), Quay Crane (19th Century)
Canmore ID 21368
Site Number NL58SE 28
NGR NL 56469 80399
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/21368
- Council Western Isles
- Parish Barra
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
Field Visit (7 May 2010)
This quay was built to service the Barra Head Lighthouse, and remains in use as the principal landing place on Berneray. It comprises a stone-built slipway running down the E side of a rocky inlet. A pair of iron rails, the remains of a tramway, runs down the centre of the slipway, but these have been partly covered over by later refurbishments, including a concrete platform built to hold a crane. The crane survived at least until 1984, when it was recorded by the Scottish Industrial Archaeology Society, but only the iron baseplate and and bolts for two braces remain.
Immediately above the upper end of the slipway there is a rectangular boat naust (or perhaps a boathouse) measuring 9m from N to S by 3.2m within drystone rubble walls up to 1.5m high. Although this is open at the N end, it is not aligned with the slipway, and so may be an earlier structure. A square stone plinth set with iron rings has been inserted into its SW corner; this perhaps held the winch for the tramway.
A quay is depicted here on an 1829 'Plan of Bara-Head or the Island of Bernera shewing the site of the lighthouse' (Northern Lighthouse Board C/5/17), though it may have been added to the map at a later date. The inlet is named Sloich Askyn on the map. The slipway (annotated 'Landing Slip' is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Hebrides 1880, sheet lxx). Buxton notes that the slip was constructed about forty years after the lighthouse (i.e. in about 1870), and that the crane was added later.
Visited by RCAHMS SB 7 May 2010
