Auskerry, Auskerry Lighthouse And Keeper's Houses
Anti Aircraft Battery (Second World War), Lighthouse (19th Century)
Site Name Auskerry, Auskerry Lighthouse And Keeper's Houses
Classification Anti Aircraft Battery (Second World War), Lighthouse (19th Century)
Canmore ID 3258
Site Number HY61NE 10
NGR HY 67245 15567
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/3258
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Stronsay
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY61NE 10 67245 15567
Auskerry Lighthouse
(flashing white) [NAT]
OS (GIS) MasterMap, July 2010.
(Location cited as HY 673 156). Auskerry Lighthouse, built 1865-6, engineer Thomas Stevenson. A tapering circular-section brick tower 112ft (34.2m) high, with 1- and 2-storey flat-roofed keepers' houses. Unmanned since 1961.
J R Hume 1977.
Auskerry lighthouse; brick tower and residential block built 1867. In the 1920's it became a rock station and in 1961 fully automatic.
R W Munro 1979.
The residential block has been sold by The Northern Lighthouse Board to S Brogan and M Holgate; it comprises 2 flats the upper one of which has been rehabilitated by M Holgate who uses it as a summer residence. (Information from S Brogan).
In the paddock NW of the residential block and on the grass sward SSE of the lighthouse and outside its enclosure, are two concrete settings with four bolts protruding. Engraved in the concrete they bear the inscription 'Hotch kiss Gun 1943'. To the E of the second one, hard against the shoreline is the crater from one of two bombs said to have been aimed at the lighthouse, which led to the installation of the guns.
Visited by R G Lamb, August 1983.
The brick tower dates from 1867 and the light became automatic in 1961. The residential block, after a period of disuse, is being renovated as a summer residence. In the paddock to the NW, and on the grass sward to the SSE, are positions, dated by inscriptions in the concrete, for Hotchkiss guns; the air attack which led to their installation in 1943 is represented by a bomb crater to the E of the second one
RCAHMS 1984.
Name: Auskerry (1865-6)
Location: N59 1 W2 34 North Sea, 14 miles NE of Kirkwall
Designed and built: David and Thomas Stevenson
Light first exhibited: 1 March 1866
Description: circular brick tower, painted white
Height of light above MHW: 112ft (34m)
Height of tower: 112ft (34m)
Light source and characteristics: W Fl (1) ev 20 secs. Acetylene: 67,000cp: nominal range 18nm
Fog warning apparatus: None
Manning: unwatched (automatic since 1961)
C Nicholson 1995.
