Pete's Irish Lighthouses

T he crazy Maidens lighthouses from the coast (photo: The Antrim Rambler) I rish Lighthouse aficionados will be well aware of the story of the Maiden Lovers but just to recap very briefly.... The towers, off the coast of Antrim, were designed by George Halpin himself, who supervised their erection. The tower on the northern rock, known as the West Tower, (obviously!!) was 84 feet above high-water with a visibility of 13 miles, and the tower on the southern rock, known as the East Tower, was 94 feet high and visible for 14 miles. The two towers were a half mile apart. The lights were first exhibited on 5th January 1829 at a cost of £37,000 .   Image from Picturesque Ireland Anyway,   a young man called Thomas McKenna was the assistant keeper at the North Maiden light. His father was the Principal Keeper. At the other lighthouse, the South one, the Principal Keeper was a man called Hugh Redmond and he had a daughter called Mary, living with him in the lighthouse at the time. Now...

When this blog started, many moons ago, it was a simple 'visit a lighthouse, take a photo or two and add a bit of info' sort of a blog. For better and worse, it has become much more historically minded and the need to have visited has gone. So it is something of a breath of fresh air to get out and actually visit an Irish lighthouse I had never seen. So, an unexpected free day at the start of September, saw me up early and driving across the country to south-west Donegal to bag the last of the easily baggable lighthouses. I could have taken a boat tour and got pretty close to Rotten Island but the distance from the mainland seemed minimal. Basically, I got to Bruckless and, with the help of Google Maps, headed for the Atlantic View B & B, which ended at a stony beach. Parking up (making sure I left a gap for any boat-laden cars to get through) the lighthouse was visible from the beach (see next photo) The tide was low so I walked up the beach towards the lighthouse, eventua...