Thursday, June 27, 2013

Castletownbere 2

Whilst on the ferry out to Bere Island we passed quite close to Castletownbere Lights 2 and 3, located on the western end of tiny Dinish Island, which is where Castletownbere's main harbour activity lies. At first, there were two unlit beacons here, one on this site and one on the water's edge. Ships knew that when you lined the beacons up, you had the right approach to the harbour.
Then in 1983, the beacons were demolished and the light above was established. The centre rectangle was originally painted red to act as a daymark and the light shone through the small rectangular panel just visible in the centre of the rectangle in the top picture. However, when Castletownbere 3 (next entry) was established in 2011, the light was removed and the red painted over with white paint (only one coat, I'd say - the red is still visible beneath the white!)
Dinish Island incidentally is connected to the mainland by a bridge. Simply drive across and follow the road either clockwise or anti-clockwise - the island is small enough.

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