The building of the navigational lights leading into Burtonport

I have been unable to blog the past few weeks so I am doubly grateful to Jim Gallagher for giving me permission to use his post on the Burtonport Heritage Facebook page. For many people, beacons and perches are just part and parcel of maritime street architecture but posts like these show they each have a story if only you dig a little. Thankfully Jim did his digging while it was still possible. Many similar stories from around our coasts will soon be lost forever.

This post is about the building of the leading lights and navigation lights which take you from Arran bay (Rosses bay) into Burtonport.

For people that are not familiar with the sea. You will see in the picture of the navigation chart a lot of lights and shapes; every single one of these are required for safe navigation to get to and from Burtonport pier. If you look at the left hand side of the picture you will see two yellow circles and then a direct black line going out the bay. The two yellow circles are leading lights. When coming in the bay you need to have these lights in a direct line (transit) and that is the safe passage into Arran roads. If you veer of this line, you have rocks above the water and under the water which you do not see. The board of works started to install these in 1960. The man leading these works was a Dublin man called Bill Walsh; the rest of the team were locals Hugh (Corney) McCole (Rutland), Paddy John Gallagher (lived next to Acres school), Danny Condy (Acres,) Joe Boucher (Arlands) and Big Neilly Gallagher (Milltown.)

After putting up some perches they had to toss them back down as they were not in the correct position. Then in 1961 James Mickey Gallagher joined the team. They worked Monday to Friday and half a day on Saturday; the wages were £4 14s a week. They hired Joe Joe Phil Boyle’s boat, the Ard Cronin, to get the first set of perches, the two I spoke about on Arranmore. They had no radios so they used flags to give signals to move to left or right from the boat to the people on the island using binoculars. It took a lot of time to get it right but they got it correct.

Then they worked on the next leading lights on Eighter Island to bring you through what they call the Narrows - that is the narrowest point you are to rocks on either side of you when traveling to and from Arranmore on the ferry.

Then they built the next leading lights on Rutland and then they built the last ones on Burtonport. You can see the last light when passing the new chalets opposite the coast guard station. There were no lights before this for navigation to take you into and out of Burtonport. They also had electric lights fitted for night navigation.

They then built a light on the narrows at Eighter; it is a red perch. Then another red perch in the Black Hole. There was another dangerous rock in the middle of the Black Hole that was submerged. It did have a perch on it before as you can see in the picture of the sailing ship, but it got washed away.

The picture with the green perch is outside Mc Cole’s (Dinsmore’s) where the new house is now built. This was an extremely difficult project. At low tide you could stand on the rock but it was still three feet below water. James Mickey had a punt and a Seagull outboard engine, so the Board of Works increased his wages to £5 to use the punt for this job.

They dropped a few anchors to try and position the punt over the rock and try and work at low water to drill holes in the rock. They could not hold the punt in position with the tides flowing. So the only option was for James Mickey (as he was the youngest) to stand on the rock at low water in spring tides holding a drill rod in his hands and the other men hit it with a sledgehammer. This was the only way they could drill it.

It took a long time but they got the first drill hole drilled and put a steel bar in the hole and I believe they filled the hole around the bar with boiled lead to hold the steel bar in position. Once they got the first bar solid, they then used that to hold the punt steady and they then continued to drill as many holes as they required. Once all the bars were solid in the rock they then built a 4 foot x 4 foot wooden frame which fitted outside the steel bars and they used weights to sink it to the rock. Then they removed the seaweed from the rock. They then used what was then a special quick setting cement and working on the tides built up the base of the perch. They then tapered it into the size you see today above the water added more steel and built it up to what you see today. So it is there since 1961 and hasn’t washed away yet and for whatever more years it will last.

There have been more leading lights added this past 20 years to make it a little easier for navigating the channels. If you are on the end of the pier in Burtonport at night, you will see all these lights flashing; these are the lights which seamen use at night. The next time you go to Arranmore on the ferry look out for these leading lights and watch how the ferries use them to lead them through the channels; every one of them are needed.

Before there were lights and boats with engines, they use to have to use ropes and winches. They had big steel rings on the rocks and ropes attached and with winches they slowly winched the schooners and sailing ships down the channels. You can still see them today if you look closely from the ferry.

You see in the picture this sailing boat is sailing at half tide and sailed down the channel this is great seamanship to sail through the Narrows without an engine. There is NO room for error.

The entrance to Burtonport from the open sea is a fantastic experience for pleasure sailors; it is a great challenge for them. The views and the navigation is about as good as you can see or get anywhere.

You will often see a sailing yacht following one of the ferries into or out of the port. The reason for this it is challenging to amateur sailors and you can get confused and they prefer to be safe and follow a ferry or fishing boat.

That, folks, is how the perches and lights were installed in the channels to Burtonport.