Little Cumbrae Island, New Lighthouse
Lighthouse (18th Century)
Site Name Little Cumbrae Island, New Lighthouse
Classification Lighthouse (18th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Little Cumbrae Lighthouse; Cumbrae Elbow
Canmore ID 40680
Site Number NS15SW 15
NGR NS 13760 51514
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/40680
- Council North Ayrshire
- Parish Cumbrae
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Cunninghame
- Former County Buteshire
NS15SW 15.00 13760 51514
Location formerly cited as NS 1376 5151.
For (superceded and predecessor) 'old' lighthouse (NS 14309 51468), see NS15SW 14.
NS15SW 15.01 NS 1373 5143 Fog Signal
NS15SW 15.02 NS 1369 5156 Slipway
NS15SW 15.03 NS 1368 5173 Jetty
NS15SW 15.04 NS 1371 5151 Boat House
Cumbrae Lighthouse
(occulting white) [NAT]
OS (GIS) AIB, April 2006.
(Location cited as NS 138 514). Little Cumbrae Lighthouse, first lit 1793 by the Cumbrae Lighthouse Trust. A short circular-section tower, with corbelled walkway with two blocks of keepers' houses, one on a U plan adjoining the tower, the other detached. The fog-horn block has a single-storey flat-roofed engine house.
J R Hume 1977.
First lit 1793, replacing Old Lighthouse (NS15SW 14). A short circular-section tower, with corbelled walkway with two blocks of keepers' houses, one on U-plan adjoining the tower, the other detached. The fog-horn block has a single-storey, flat-roofed engine house.
D B Hague and R Christie 1975; J R Hume 1977; R W Munro 1979.
Construction (1793)
Replaced by 1757 coal fired lighthouse.
R W Munro 1979; R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Project (2007)
This project was undertaken to input site information listed in 'Civil engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' by R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.
Publication Account (2007)
The coal-lit lighthouse first exhibited in 1757, was far from efficient but the increased income from shipping dues enabled a new and improved lighthouse to be built near the coast to the west in 1793 which is still in service. It was designed by Thomas Smith, the first engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board, and operated with parabolic facetted mirror glass reflector oil lamps.
The erection of the lighthouse was superintended by Smith’s 19-year-old assistant Robert Stevenson. Stevenson and the family of engineers he founded advised the trust, which later became the Clyde Lighthouses Trust, until 1952. It was the first work for which Stevenson received payment.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
