Stoer Lighthouse

Our penultimate full day of this busy two weeks in Scotland brings us to the Point of Stoer. Our car park is just a few hundred metres behind me and a steep climb brings me to this spot. As can be seen, the lighthouse out-buildings can now be rented as a holiday home. Tomorrow I shall post a more dramatic view.

‘Stoer Head Lighthouse was built on Stoer Head by brothers David and Thomas Stevenson in 1870. Although the lighthouse is relatively short (only 14 metres high) its elevation above sea level is 54 metres. A Principal Lightkeeper and an Assistant and their families lived at Stoer Head until the light became automated in 1978. They were quite self-sufficient and nearby you can see the remains of the former byre, stable, cow shed, pig house and cart shed all built for life at the lighthouse station. The Lightkeepers’ children were educated at Stoer Public School, however there were no senior schools in the county of Sutherland so the children had to continue their education away from the lighthouse at boarding school. Lightkeeping was a remote, lonely and hard existence. One task overruled everything: the light must burn at maximum intensity throughout the hours of darkness. During long winter nights, the need to constantly check everything and trim the lamp wicks every four hours was extremely demanding. The lighting system is an array of sealed-beam electric lamps, as used by locomotives for headlights. When daylight falls and rises between set levels a small light sensor automatically switches the banks of lights on and off. The light is monitored from the Northern Lighthouse Board’s offices in Edinburgh and is visited on a regular basis by a Retained Lighthouse Keeper. Once a year the Northern Lighthouse Board Technicians visit the light to carry out maintenance.’ (Northern Lighthouse Board).

Have a good day.