Pete's Irish Lighthouses

From the Irish Times January 12th . THE LAST remaining foghorns around the 7,800km coastline have been switched off “officially” by the Commissioners of Irish Lights and several harbour boards. However, should a blanket of cloud descend over Fastnet rock it may be that passing craft will still hear a ghostly warning sound from the fog signals for some time yet. Fastnet is one of three lighthouses which will require a physical visit before the fog signal can be “disabled” – the others being at Old Head, Kinsale in Co Cork and Dundalk in Co Louth. The Commissioners of Irish Lights confirmed yesterday that some of the signals may still be working beyond the “P45” date of January 11th, but most just required a “touch of a computer mouse” at headquarters in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, to be silenced. The commissioner has been disabling fog signals at various lighthouses for the past 20 years and said it issued a marine notice about the remaining horns at nine lighthouses last September. ...

More crappy photos, tortuously brought to this blog by non-digital camcorder, DVD hard drive, then a photo of a still image. Taken from the Schull - Cape Clear ferry as you leave Roaringwater Bay on the way out. Built in 1864, this was a daybeacon only until a light was added thirty years ago.

Okay, not a great photo. Taken in August 2004 from Mizen Head, Ireland's tallest and most famous lighthouse broods alone in the Atlantic. Located off the south west point of Ireland, it welcomes boats from America and is the focus of the famous Fastnet sailing race. Taken on an old non-digital camcorder, which was transferred to DVD, which was then photographed on the telly!

Six years after we were down in West Cork, my daughter went back and took these photographs. The actual light is on top of the white octagonal building. These lights lie just to the seaward of the building. A spectacular setting, even the path to the lighthouse must have taken an age to construct!

This is the same lighthouse that I was puzzling over here http://irishlighthouses.blogspot.com/2009/08/near-south-rock.html At the time, I was puzzling over what it was, as there was no mention of it in Trabas. I think I may have found the answer. From CIL "Monday, March 2 2009 The South Rock Lightfloat was permanently withdrawn from station and replaced by a port-hand lateral superbuoy on Wednesday 25 February 2009.A lightship was first established at the South Rock on the 1st April 1877, replacing the lighthouse which had been established in 1797. The lightship was automated and redesignated as a lightfloat, and the crew was withdrawn on 31 March 1982. The South Rock Lightfloat is the last lightfloat in the Service. " And from http://www.cloughey.org.uk/lightship_going_69.html "The small red ship on the horizon about 3 miles East of Cloughey is to be withdrawn at end of February 2009. It will be replaced by a 'superbuoy' which will not have a fog h...

And so to the lightship Petrel. I didn't think I'd find this, as directions were pretty vague but it rather fell into our laps. Go into Balloo on the A22. At the Saintfield crossroads take the road signposted Whiterock. Go through Killinchy and when yo get to Whiterock, there is a sudden bend to the left. Keep following this road, ignoring a road that leads right across a causeway, and after about 3/4 mile, the lightship is on your right. Built around 1915, decommissioned in 1968, it has been the headquarters of the Down Cruising Club since 1969. Delighted to find a lightship that has been put to some use.

And so, up the coast to this very picturesque lighthouse standing smartly to attention at the end of the pier in Donaghadee. Originally erected in 1836, it was designed by the men who built the Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth, though substantially repaired when gutted by fire in 1900. Brendan Behan apparently painted this lighthouse, though I suspect more in a fine art way than a decorating way. Incidentally, approaching Donaghadee from the south, I kept glimpsing what I assumed was the lighthouse at Mews Island, north east of Donaghadee. Ah, says I, I'll get a better view of it the further up the coast I go. Unfortunately between Donaghadee and the outskirts of Bangor there was no sea view at all. If I'd had time, I'd have detoured off to Groomsport where I believe it might have been possible to get a decent view, but the shops of Newry, like Danny Boy's pipes, were calling.