Pete's Irish Lighthouses

The square tower built on the original cottage style lighthouse in 1796 There has been a lighthouse on the Copeland Islands, on the southern entrance to Belfast Lough from at least 1733, and maybe as early as 1711. It has, of course, not been the same lighthouse, nor has it even been on the same island but, such was the litany of wrecks on those three small islands and outlying rocks, that it was decided very early on that they should be lit. Plan of the first Copeland Island lighthouse, taken from Douglas Haig and Rosemary Christie's 'Lighthouses - their architecture, history and archaeology' The lighthouse on Cross Island (the middle island), which soon became known as Lighthouse Island – for reasons that I can’t fathom – was built by convicts and was established around 1711 or 1715 or 1733.  At this time, lighthouses were cottages with a brazier on the roof. It seems that the cottage here had a bit of a square tower on it, from which coal was burned at night, roughly 400...

  The closest photo I could get of the two wonderful lighthouses at Slyne Head, taken from the beach near the Golf Course Club House  Have you visited every lighthouse in Ireland? That's a question I, and I suspect many of you, have been asked. Depending on my mood, I will either give the short answer ( all except one ) or the more detailed answer ( depends what you mean by 'visited.' Some I've only seen from a distance but still was able to get photographs of. When I save up enough for the helicopter ...) A recent week in Connemara gave me an opportunity to get a little bit more up close and personal with Slyne Head than my previous attempt , thirteen years ago. Obviously, with the lighthouses being on the furthest small island off the end of the headland, there would be no hugging, but I'd get a decent view and I could also check out the pier that the boat contractor (the King family) left from at Slackport for over 100 years prior the the helicopter era. Google ...

Mine Head lighthouse, county Waterford, Ireland's highest lighthouse. The lantern is 285 feet above sea level Henry Thomas Murphy (Service no 97) was a Donegal man from Falcarragh, born to a coastguard on 15th July 1868. He joined Irish Lights in April 1892 and, after 2 years at the Baily, he was off on his travels. He was in Slyne Head in 1899 and on the Spit Bank in Queenstown (Cobh) in 1901 and 1903. He was made PK in August 1905 and was in Rockabill for the 1911 Census. Shortly thereafter he was in Mine Head and was moved to Haulbowline in December 1916. He was still there in mid-1918 but was back at Queenstown by February 1919. In 1903 he had married Susan Gertrude Crowley, daughter of a shopkeeper from Kilrush in county Clare. According to the 1911 Census, they had three children together before 1911, all of whom died. One Irish Lights record from 1918 indicates that he was married with no children. Keeper's cottage, Mine Head On the night of 14th January 1913, while Henr...

The old 1781 Wicklow Head high light Two identically-designed lighthouses (one slightly smaller than the other) were built on Wicklow Head to the plans of architect John Trail. In 1777, four years prior to the establishment of the lights, they advertised for a Superintendent of Lights at the station, whose responsibility it would be to source, interview, house, feed and pay the keepers.    Obviously, the Commissioners for Barracks, for whom it was far more fun to build forts, couldn't be arsed to vet suitable lightkeepers themselves and made it a condition of the tender. When the Ballast Board took over the job in 1810, they appointed keepers themselves but, it seems, these Superintendents stayed in place until either they, or the keepers they had hired, died or retired. Views from the top oval windows. The lighthouse is the 'new' upper light but it stood almost exactly where the old lower light stood Of course, the Ballast Board discovered that, at many of the 14 lighthous...

( This is a little piece what I writ for Lamp 140 a few months ago, and they somehow agreed to publish it. Lamp is the journal of the Association of Lighthouse Keepers and you don't hav e  to be a keeper to join.) The girl from Ipanema may well go walking but, it appears, the buoy from Louisiana may well give her a run for her money. I am well aware that that sentence will not work as well in America due to their different pronunciations. The saga began in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina rampaged through the Gulf of Mexico and caused major devastation to the southern US states. One of its victims was an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, whose location needed to be marked. A company called Wet Tech Energy, then based in Lafayette LA, were contracted to manufacture a buoy to mark the spot. This they did and, in 2006, the buoy, affectionately named 3372899399, was placed in position and moored. According to Todd Carl, operations manager with Wet Tech, the company realised it was missing o...

The Fastnet and the little Fastnet (aw, isn't he cute?) A blast from the past from the I rish Examiner 7th January 1956. The author of the piece is Youghal attendant Andrew Coughlan. There were Coughlans on the Fastnet almost from the very start in 1854.   1906 Accessing the Fastnet (NLI)

  The old cowboy in the corner of the Roundstone saloon spat in the vague direction of the spittoon and drained his whuskey. "The round stone?" he asked. "What would a feller like you be wanting with the round stone?" I explained that I researched lighthouses and navigational beacons and I had heard legends about an old round stone in this part of Connemara. "Ah, I could tell you all about the round stone," my newly-found friend whispered hoarsely, "but my throat is desperate dry." After I had replenished his beverage, he began his tale. "Here in Roundstone, we talk about Before Nimmo and After Nimmo. Alexander Nimmo, came over from Scotland. Couldn't understand a word he said and he had no Gaelic, not even Scot's Gaelic. Before he came, there was only a few houses dotted up and down the coast and a bit of a harbour for the boys to fish out of..." "He built the lighthouse at Dunmore East too," I interjected. "That...