Scottish Islands Explorer 45: Sep / Oct 2017

The Island Lighthouses of Scotland by John A Love
Savills Fochabers
7 The Square, Fochabers
Morayshire IV32 7DG
01343 823000
The Island Lighthouses
of Scotland by John A Love
savills.co.uk
Tom Aston thoroughly recommends a highly-informative account
Here is a small book (58 pages
long) at a reduced price (now
£5) about a topic that commands
attention - the construction of an
extensive maritime network of lifesaving
devices. The Scottish coast is
some 6000 miles in extent; it has
800 islands, mainly to the west
and north; 208 lighthouses and
almost 250 buoys, beacons as well as
identification systems.
The Commissioners for Northern
Lighthouses, or the Northern Lighthouse
Board, was formed in 1786. It
was one of the first authorities of its
kind, although the tradition of alerting
ships to dangers by lighting beacons
was started in Scotland as early as the
5th Century by monks on Heisgeir, the
Monachs, west of North Uist. The first
NLB creation was at Kinnaird Head in
Buchan in 1787.
An era of lighthouse building had
started, continuing until 1958 with
Strathy Point, Ca ithness, and,
appropriately enough, with the recommissioning
of the Heisg eir
Lighthouse in 2005. It is only six years
since the publication of John Love’s
book that focuses on the islands, which
is no time compared with the 231 years
of the NLB’s work.
Dynasty of Builders
The pleasure of reading this wellillustrated
book is that it informs
about the parameters of pharology,
indicates the techniques of building
and lighting that evolved, directs to
46 SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2017
what was happening in England and
Wales (where Trinity House has
responsibility for only 69 lighthouses)
and depicts the personalities of the
great dynasty of builders, the
Stevenson family.
We all know a thing or two about
lighthouses, especially those that have
legendary associations with Scottish
islands, but this book helps us fit our
scant knowledge into the full
sequence of events, reactions to them,
particularly the great storms, and to
the actions taken to create safeguards
for shipping faced with rocks beneath
the surface, raging seas and fierce
elements above.
The basic divisions of lighthouse are
of ‘shore’, ‘island’ and ‘rock’ with their
comparable ‘relieving stations’ for
families. The ways they were built
changed with increasing technology
and personal decisions by those in
charge. Take the construction of Bell
Rock off the east coast and Skerryvore,
off the west, both difficult to access.
In Storms
In 1806, Robert Stevenson designed
the former to be interlocking both
vertically and horizontally; 28 years
later his son, Alan, decided that the
latter should rely on its weight and
avoid horizontal binding. Years later,
one seasoned ‘keeper indicated that in
storms, Skerryvore yielded only slightly
while Bell Rock shuddered on the
impact of the waves.
Alan’s younger brother, David, was
faced with an ‘impossible’ task at
Muckle Flugga in 1854 and decided to
use bricks rather than blocks. The
account of this construction, and the
way in which the temporary building
was devastated, is compelling. So the
top end of Britain became protected
and has remained as such. This book is
both a tribute to, and a celebration of,
a remarkable era.
Further Information
Access the Book Page of
www.theislandsbooktrust.com for the
special offer of £5.
BEAUTIFUL AND ACCESSIBLE PRIVATE ISLAND
holm of grimbister, grimbister, kirkwall, orkney
Period farm cottage with kitchen, living room, sun lounge, bedroom, shower room 40 acres (16.18
hectares) or thereby of arable land including 2 small ponds delightful range of traditional farm buildings
with conversion potential causeway to the mainland at low tide mains services hosted wind turbine
generating free electricity about 40 acres (16.18 hectares) in total for sale as a whole EPC = G
Offers over £300,000
Contact: Jamie Watson 01343 823 005 jbwatson@savills.com