Pete's Irish Lighthouses

  "You wanna join the ALK, you've really got to love lighthouses." "I do!" "Oh, yeah? How much?" "A lot." (Pause) "Okay, you're in." Yes, the Association of Lightkeepers were in Belfast for their Annual General Meeting and three days of lighthouse visiting and somehow my wife agreed to let me go. I will be dealing with all the lights in due course but the last one was Rue Point on the southern tip of Rathlin Island. It was not on the ALK's agenda but, seeing that it was 15 years since I was last there and that I would probably rue the lost opportunity (not the last of the terrible puns, I'm afraid), I determinedly set out on my own down to this lonely outpost. We had actually passed this light on the ferry from Ballycastle and I little thought I'd get to visit, as the schedule was so rue-thless but things worked in my favour and I was soon bounding down the long lane to the lighthouse like a kangarue. It is an intere...

This is a follyer-upper to Ballycotton Lighthouse Part One After an early morning drive down from Dublin to Mine Head, Youghal and the Capel Island viewing point, I negotiated the narrow main street of Ballycotton to make it down to the harbour at the appointed time of 12 o'clock on one of those idyllic summer's days that only seem to exist in your childhood memories. I met up with my fellow-travellers - Markus and his two lovely daughters from Bischofsheim in Germany and a couple who had good reason to be there - they had got engaged on the balcony of Ballycotton lighthouse several years ago and regularly come back to the scene of the crime, though they refused to reenact the event for our entertainment. Ann Marie was our personable, friendly and knowledgable Ballycotton Sea Adventures guide (my friend John Archer had done the previous tour!) and our pilot looked like he knew how to handle a boat, so it was in good spirits that we set off. Even to a gnarled old landlubber lik...

As the Association of Light Keepers will be in town from Saturday to Tuesday and a trip to Rathlin Island has been scheduled in, this is an opportune time to highlight a tale from The Irish Press , 21st November 1944.  CIL Inspection trip c 1905 The accommodation for the families of the West Light keepers were also located at the East Light. The two lights at Rathlin East (or simply "Rathlin" before the Rathlin West light was established in 1919) were established in 1856. The lower, fixed, baby light was discontinued in 1894. The cave system in the cliffs below the lighthouse is supposed to be the place where Robert the Bruce had his arachnid experience. Rathlin East was one of the last lighthouses on the Irish coast to go automatic, holding out until 1995.  It was also the scene of a terrible accident in 1912. Dennis 'Denny' Duff was an AK at the lighthouse, four years into his career with Irish Lights. The Princess Maud steamer, laden with tourists, was passing the...

  Another beautiful wee video from the elusive Nick from Holywood (check out his Irelandscapes videos on YouTube) who documents ordinary life both rural and maritime mainly in counties Antrim and Down. This one is taken from Whitehead on the south Antrim coast and features the islands and marine traffic of the outer Belfast Lough. As such we see the old Lighthouse Island (38 secs) and Mew Island (44 secs) in quick succession.

  Something a little bit different for this post, please forgive the indulgence.  I recently had the good fortune to visit Ballycotton (or Ballycottin, as it was often written) on a beautiful warm summer's day in East Cork. I will write about the visit and the history in a subsequent post or posts but I recently came across a short, short story called " A Keeper's Woman, " written eight years ago by a multi-talented lady named Henrietta McKervey. I requested permission to reproduce it in full on the blog and Henrietta kindly agreed. A Keeper’s Woman We’d say to one another, and we’d nod saying it, wasn’t herself the luckiest woman in Ballycotton? And though they had gone and painted the lighthouse black, and in our hearts we wondered was that the worst of luck, we would say what great fortune Enagh had, that she’d always know where her husband was, and what he was up to.  He’d not be touching a drop out there neither , one of us would be bound to say, and Josie would ...

  Black Head lighthouse, county Antrim I was searching recently for a man called John F. Connell who had posted two fascinating photos of Eagle Island in an old Beam magazine (I was trying to trace him to see if he had any more!) I enlisted the services of Gary Google, who came up with a listing for Black Head lighthouse in a Northern Island Government Historical Buildings document. Among all the technical information was an appendage entitled  " Notes c1999 from John Connell, Lighthouse keeper. In his 63rd year in Irish Lights (retired at 60, now aged about 82)" I will quote the passage in full, with but two comments. Firstly, I have no idea what the timeline for the passage is but Mr. Connell was 20 in 1935, so it had to have been after that. And secondly, lightkeepers needed to be reasonably literate, so I am assuming the dreadful spelling - which is mostly decipherable - must be down to the transcripting by the Historic Building people. 'Opn lighthouses ye'd alwa...