Pete's Irish Lighthouses

I was contacted recently by a very nice guy called Nick from Holywood, county Down. Nick makes beautiful short films recording the Ireland that he sees around him, from winter scenes to lakes and forests, skies, whatever captures his interest. He had become interested in lighthouses (there are a good few in his part of our coast!) and was wondering if I'd do a voice-over for a lighthouse film.  Now I'm a stammerer and was hesitant (pun intended) but Nick is the type of feller who can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear and he has made me sound almost fluent. I'm not sure the piece was supposed to be about me but that's how it's turned out.

Inis Mor lighthouse is up for sale. The original and long-defunct lighthouse at the highest point of the Aran Islands commands magnificent views over all sides of Galway Bay and boasts no mod cons. I visited in 2018 , on the bicentenary of its establishment, though I didn't realise it at the time. There was a handmade notice on the door saying that the lighthouse was closed for renovations, though there were no signs of any renovations happening. The tower itself seems fairly intact but the houses are pretty dilapidated. In 1799, a signal tower was erected at the site, one of a chain that stretched around the coast, each one visible to two others, in case the French invaded. The lighthouse was established next to the tower in 1818 to mark the chain of Aran Islands in Galway Bay, a task at which it failed miserably. Like many lighthouses at the time, it was built too high and was frequently enveloped in low cloud or fog, rendering it useless. In 1857 it was replaced by two lights; o...

  Boston Light (1716) Okay, not quite everything but there is a LOT of information on lighthouses on this site.   My thanks to Alex from Maine for putting me onto it (and she certainly has some stunning lighthouses in that part of the world). It is a list of sources for lighthouse information and you could spend hours just browsing all the information on Fresnel lights and ancient lighthouses and lighthouse terminology. Naturally, being a U.S. site, the emphasis is on North American lights but there is plenty in there for the Irish lighthouse enthusiast too. I have put a link on the sidebar. Of course, if it told you everything you needed to know about lighthouses, it would make this blog redundant!

Did you ever hear of a 'special mark' in relation to maritime navigation? Me neither. I've heard of a wreck buoy to mark a wreck; cardinal marks and lateral marks but this is a new one on me. According to the CIL website  Special Marks are used to indicate a special area or feature whose nature may be apparent from reference to a chart or other nautical publication. Special marks are yellow. They may carry a yellow 'X' top-mark, and any light used is also yellow.   My thanks again to Nick Blackburne from Holywood who spotted this one just off the shore from his home town, obviously marking the location of a gas line. I've no idea when they were introduced. I'm presuming they are the maritime version of this: -

The video of Donaghadee lighthouse below was made by a very talented guy called Nick who does a lot of short maritime features. The channel is on YouTube and is called Irelandscapes. N Ireland Donaghadee Lighthouse - Relaxing Landscape Scener y I have spent years  omitting the second 'a' of Donaghadee and turning it into a three-syllable words instead of four, possibly due to the fact that I never heard anybody saying the name. I have no idea how it began but I am now very self-conscious of it and finally realise why there was so little on t'internet about this lighthouse in county Down - I'd been spelling it wrong on the search engines. Donaghadee harbour is very old, dating back to the 1600s and for many years it flourished due to the sea route to Portpatrick in Scotland, a mere 22 miles. The major drawback of this route was lack of railway facilities at either port and ironically, the construction of these two railways coincided more or less with Larne - Stranraer re...

  The Coningbeg Lightship in 1903 This is a little bit long, so I have abridged it as much as I could without detracting from the thrust of the case (so to speak) Personally, I think the cold case team should have another look at this one. From the Wicklow News-Letter Saturday 18th January 1902 On Wednesday in the Nisi Prius Court No.2, Miss Margaret White, Kilmore Quay, county Wexford, sued John P. Wall, Inisheer, Arran Islands for breach of promise of marriage. Mr James O'Connor appeared for the plaintiff and Mr. W. Gibson appeared for the defendant. Mr. O’Connor, in opening the case, said the action was brought for breach of promise of marriage, aggravated by seduction. The defendant denied that he made the promise of marriage and said that a reasonable time had not elapsed before the action, and denied the seduction. The jury would have no doubt, when they heard the evidence, that the defendant promised to marry the plaintiff and that, last year, he seduced her, and he had now,...

I have been sitting on this lighthouse for a number of months now (not literally, of course, for it has long ceased to be) waiting for some long-promised information to be sent to me. However, though I have not given up hope, the chances of me dying before the information arrives are rising with each passing month, so I think it best to put pen to paper with what I have. (I hasten to add that a) I am really grateful to the person concerned for his offer of help and b) to my knowledge, my death is not imminent) The watercolour above is of a beautiful wooden lighthouse. To me, it looks slightly north European, Belgian or North Germany, maybe. Of course, it must be remembered that I am an idiot. The painting is by a famous maritime artist known as Alexander Williams and it hangs in the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire. It was painted from somewhere along the South Wall of the River Liffey between the old Pigeon House Fort and Poolbeg Lighthouse, looking north west across the river. Th...