Pete's Irish Lighthouses

The latest news in the soap opera that is the Lightship Gannet comes to me from the legendary Russ Rowlett, compiler and editor of the the Lightshouse Directory, the unofficial bible for all lighthouse enthusiasts. Lightships were once very common around the shores of Ireland and indeed the small island to the east of us. They were located wherever it was too dangerous, or too economically unviable to build a lighthouse, such as the Saltees off the coast of county Wexford or the shifting sands of Dublin Bay. Nowadays, these guardians of our coastline have all but disappeared. The only complete lightship left in Ireland is moored in Strangford Lough; there is a mast and light on one of the quays in Arklow; another lightship is, I believe, being used as a floating restaurant on the Seine in Paris. Lightship Gannet, built in 1954, was stationed off the county Down coast at the site of the very old South Rock lighthouse, one of the world's first wave-washed lighthouses. It w...

Rathlin O'Birne is one of the few Irish lighthouses I have yet to clap eyes on and, despite this post, it is still the case. It is situated on a small island in south-west Donegal and I have planned for some time to do a road trip to capture the three lighthouses on that jutty out piece of land - St. John's, Rotten Island and Rathlin O'Birne. The lighthouse was constructed on the island by 1846, though for some unfathomable reason it was ten years before the light went live. Along with the light were two keepers' cottages and a few outhouses and precious little else. Despite its proximity to the mainland, landing has always been tricky on Rathlin O'Birne - there is no slipway landing place and a dead calm sea is vital for boats to land. It also has the distinction of being the world's first nuclear powered lighthouse and the only such light in Ireland. The isotope generator was landed on the island in 1974 after a six day journey from Dun Laoghaire....

  On my September 2016 visit to Fanad, I tried to find evidence of the original light, with no success. The first light was shown  at Fanad on Patricks Day 1817. According to the CIL website,  " The first lighthouse was similar in size to two other towers being built around the same time, one at Mutton Island off Salthill, Galway Bay, and the other at Roche's Point on the eastern entrance to Cork harbour. They were 5 feet 9 inches inside diameter by three stories high-ground, first floor and lantern."  In 1886, " Construction (on the new light) went ahead and a new larger and higher tower, close to the original tower was built together with an extra dwelling." I was unsuccessful in finding evidence of the original tower, a stump, or a circular foundation. On the tour of the lighthouse this time around, I came across an old painting of the lighthouse, pre-dating 1886 (see above). It shows a different configuration of dwellings and a much shorter li...

There are three cottages at Fanad Head available for rent - Tory, Inishtrahull and Dunree, named for the three nearby lighthouses and the way the cottages face. Tory and Inishtrahull were former lightkeepers' cottages, while Dunree is a former storeroom. So, in the photo above, our cottage, Tory, is accessed by the green door furthest left below the visible slate grey roof. Inishtrahull faces a different way. It is situated to the right of the tower (chimneys visible). Dunree is the squarish building extreme right with the two green doors. The cottage is accessed by a short flight of steps. The walls are extremely thick with the result that you can barely hear a gale blowing outside. The photos on the Lighthouse site are very poor. The rooms are a lot more spacious than the photos indicate and we could easily have accommodated a fifth person on the foldy-up bed. Excuse the bags on the bed. First bedroom, two twin beds. View of the outside compound. All the rooms h...

It doesn't really look like a pub, more a converted residence but it was a godsend to us. Staying at the lighthouse, we would drive the one kilometer uphill to the pub every evening and walk back down every night. Then I'd pick up the car again in the morning. Having a pub so near saved us the hassle of driving to a pub and the necessity for a designated driver. The pub is small and offers a small selection of tasty and generously-sized evening meals. For some reason, RTE Gold appears to be the default channel on the telly but it actually worked quite well! Building next door with a brilliant mural of the lighthouse itself. Oh, and a grand pint too.

As a Christmas gift, my wife bought me a voucher for a stay at Fanad Head Lighthouse, so in mid-April, we set off, along with her sister and husband. The first day was very stormy but with good visibility. After that it calmed down a bit but was quite dull. But staying in a lighthouse is probably the one occasion you don't mind the weather. It was my first visit since September 2016 and the old visitors center / shop inside the compound had moved to larger premises just outside the gate. But apart from that, little had changed. We got a free tour of the tower with our accommodation, which I will detail in a separate post. The helicopter landing pad is no longer used by the Commissioner of Irish Lights. These days it is very occasionally used by air / sea rescue helicopters and mad women. Semaphore flags hanging inside the tower. More internal photos from my September 2016 visit here.

Once again, I am indebted to Redmond O'Brien for drawing my attention to one of the lost lighthouses of Ireland. Hunting out lighthouses is very satisfying and it brings you off the beaten track but the discovery of a lost lighthouse is very rare and, for an anorak like me at least, very exciting. Redmond drew my attention to the Speed map of Ireland (above) drawn in 1610 and pointed out the candle holder symbol - rather like the Jewish menorah - located nearby, asking if I knew anything about it. As it happened, I had looked at the map a long time ago and come to the conclusion that this symbol did not represent a lighthouse based on the evidence that, though there were several of these around the coast, many more lay inland. And, obviously, what would be the point of a lighthouse in a landlocked county? However, prompted by Redmond, who suggested a location just north of Rosslare Golf Club, I did a bit of digging and came across the lost community of Rosslare Fort, sit...