Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 35 on 15/11/2007.

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To the lighthouse

Dave McFadzean looks at the long history of lighthouses in Scotland

Scotland has always had stormy seas and unpredictable weather. Coping with these quickly changing conditions has never been easy. Fantastic storms or pea-soup haar, interspersed with hurricane force winds, torrential rain and even blinding blizzards have all been part and parcel of seagoing life in Scottish waters for several centuries.

Some would say that global positioning satellites and modern technological advances have swept away the need for more traditional sailing methods, but still the reassuring beams of light flood out nightly to warn mariners of navigational hazards and let them know exactly where they are by the unique character of the different lights.

In the days before the Northern Lighthouse Board, there were a few efforts to make the sea safer by lighting the way.

Perhaps the most famous early light, and probably the first, was a simple square tower built out on the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth in the 1630s. James Maxwell of Innerwick and Alexander and John Cunningham of Barns (a father and son combination) gained a contract from King Charles I to erect and maintain a light on the island from their own finances. These early entrepreneurs recouped their money many times over by levying a charge on all local shipping. The tower was 25 feet square and 40 feet high and was topped by an unsophisticated beacon consisting of a simple brazier that was fed by coal.

All the fuel had to be transported to the island, then painstakingly hauled up to the tower an.....

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By Dave McFadzean

Section : Scotland Coast

Page number : 54