The Sheep's Head
In the 1960s, Gulf Oil built large holding tanks on Whiddy Island that would temporarily store crude oil from the Gulf before it was shipped on around northern Europe. Supertankers (300,000 tons +) would arrive and deposit their vast cargoes, and slightly smaller ones (c.100,000 tons) would then arrive and fill up with oil for refineries like Southampton and Rotterdam. With such a vital commodity and multi-billion pound cargo, it was decided that a light needed to be placed at the end of the Sheep's Head peninsula to aid the increase in large ocean traffic to the pleasantly rural location. At the same time, it was decided to increase the range of the light at Mizen Head. Large tankers would be able to plot their course using the RACON and the Radio Beacon at that station before being guided by the new light into Bantry Bay. The RACON in particular could be picked up by a ship 35 miles out to sea. During June 1968, all the materials needed for the construction of the lightho...