As mentioned in my previous post, we set off towards Montrose on Saturday pre-positioned for a visit to Scurdie Ness on Sunday. Not only was it going to be a visit to the lighthouse though, it was also an opportunity to get inside thanks to the combined efforts of the organisers behind Angus Coastal Festival and the Northern Lighthouse Board. Not an opportunity to be missed!
Leaving our accommodation just to the south of Aberdeen, we decided to pay a quick visit to Tod Head lighthouse while we were in the area. I really like Tod Head, it has a wonderful silhouette. We parked up and had a quick wander around – I say quick because we were keen to get to Ferryden and walk along to Scurdie Ness for the start of the event at 11am. I hadn’t really gone beyond the lighthouse before, so I thought I’d give it a try as the headland looked nice in itself and I expected the views back to the lighthouse to be wonderful. I wasn’t wrong. Why had it taken me so long to go for a walk down there?! There are the remains of an old concrete path with old pipes alongside leading towards the edge of the headland. We later discovered this was where the foghorn used to be, although nothing remains of the foghorn building itself now. When I received a message from Bob asking where I was I thought it was probably time to head back.
While we were keen to get there, Bob suggested he take a closer look at the light at Gourdon, which I’d seen up close on a previous visit, but he’d had to settle for a view from the car that time. It’s a difficult one to get a picture of unless you are content to photograph it from behind. Nice little tower though.
We arrived in Ferryden, parked up and began the walk along the beach and then up to the road. The sun was trying to break through the clouds, which is always a good sign. We spotted the lighthouse across the river, which we’d been to a few weeks ago and, of course, there are the various daymarks along the shoreline too. On the way to the lighthouse a lady passed us, obviously keen to get there too, and she arrived a little before we did at 10.35am. She wandered over and asked if we had been at Tod Head just before going down and I realised it was the lady who owns the lighthouse there. She was aware of my book and had a copy back at home so she was pleased to meet me and very kindly invited us back after we had finished at Scurdie Ness. I also said a brief hello to Fiona, the Communications lady at the Northern Lighthouse Board, who I’d met for the first time at their office last week.
They obviously decided to get going with the trips as there were already a few of us lingering around, so off we went. There is not a lot to see at all going up the stairs, just an endless supply of spiral staircase – or at least that’s how it felt – and a few windows. The Northern Lighthouse Board’s website says there are 170 steps to the top, and that sounds about right. We reached the first floor where Tam Cairns (who showed me and the rest of the Association of Lighthouse Keepers group around Cape Wrath lighthouse in May) and the Retained Lighthouse Keeper for the area, Donald, gave us a bit of an introduction. We then continued up to the next level. There’s not a huge amount to see inside the lighthouse now, as is the case with most operational towers these days. So it was really just cabinets with bits of equipment or batteries inside.
We were greeted at the top by four of the modern lights that the Northern Lighthouse Board are introducing to an increasing number of their towers. A friend of mine calls them “puddings”. They contain an LED, which you can see if you look closely enough. Apparently these puddings are £17/18,000 each and are imported from Australia, but require hardly any maintenance unlike the old equipment which was becoming increasingly unreliable. I feel sad that the lights are being replaced by these puddings as it means the loss of a sweeping beam (these new lights just come on and go off). I mentioned this to Tam and he explained that what they have found with this type of light is that crews on board ships see the light flash, but because it doesn’t rotate they find it difficult to keep track of where the tower is between flashes. To resolve this they have been trialing a new set up at St Abbs where a very low level light, which is constantly on, is positioned inside the lamp room too and that light can always be seen. It appears to be working, so they are likely to employ the same set-up elsewhere too.
I also asked about the new light arrangement in Duncansby Head lighthouse as they now have an LED inside a rotating optic, which is great and I hoped they would roll that out further, but alas it seems unlikely. Apparently the light at Duncansby Head needs to have a greater range than the puddings are capable of achieving. I found this quite fascinating as often we think of new technology being able to achieve more than older equipment, but clearly that is not the case here.
After we left the lamp room we took a spin out around the balcony. There are wonderful views from up there, particularly looking back along the river and, of course, I caught the obligatory lighthouse shadow on the ground below. The queue was well and truly forming below so we felt it was probably time to give someone else a turn. Down and down we went and then we spent a while eating the specially prepared Scurdie Ness lighthouse cake, drinking tea and chatting. The owner of Tod Head, Rohan, still seemed happy for us to visit and, once again it was an opportunity we couldn’t possibly have turned down.
We met Rohan back at the lighthouse a little while later. As we were standing outside I said to Bob that I was looking forward to seeing inside as I had a feeling it would be very different from any other lighthouse I’d been inside before. I wasn’t wrong. Rohan bought the lighthouse around the time I first visited it in May 2012 although she hadn’t moved in by that point. Since then she has been gradually doing it up while also maintaining what is a very old building. Rohan has had some incredible work done there. The living room area is fantastic with metal beams still visible and the old unit which used to house some of the main controls sitting in the corner, not to mention the amazing rounded tower that takes over a corner of the room. What I wouldn’t give to have a bit of lighthouse tower in my living room! She has tried to keep hold of a number of the old fixtures and fittings and the kitchen cupboards still feature “Wear eye protection” and “Hand protection must be worn in this area” as well as “Optic battery 12V Nominal”.
Of course, the most amazing part was the tower. It’s not a tall one, but that really adds to its charm. There is a lower ground floor, which Rohan said they filled in as it used to just be full of mucky sludge. It’s currently being used for storage, but everyone needs that kind of space. We set off up the tower and came out on the first floor. Up here there was a little hatch in the wall that Rohan opened up. It was within the lower part of what used to be a door. She has tried to establish what the door there might have been used for in the past, but has not found any explanation so far. At this point, if you looked up you could see a square panel of glass through which a circular glass design, made up of 12 different sections, was visible. We got another look at both from the next floor up where it was fantastic to look down through the square pane and see the basement floor right at the bottom. The walls here were lined beautifully with wood and this little door leading out to the balcony looked perfect too. There was a small sign leant up against the wall saying that we should wear ‘hedgehogs’ upstairs if we planned on standing on the glass floor. I threw on a pair of pink ones and off I went.
Now, I’m going into an increasing number of lamp rooms these days and it’s always nice to see a light still in them, but this one was amazing. The floor was incredible, the views were stunning and it was also rather hot too with all of the glass making for a lovely greenhouse feel! What a fantastic place to go on a stormy day and watch the waves crashing about below, or even on a nice day such as the day we were there when all is relatively calm and beautiful. There was a lot to love about it.
The amazing tour continued back down on the next floor and then out onto the balcony. One of the many unique things about Tod Head lighthouse is that it has an extension to the balcony on the seaward east side. Whereas on most lighthouses you struggle to see the lantern properly from the balcony, this bit means you can step back and get a better view – and, of course, there were those brilliant views of the coast again to the north, east and south.
We were up against time a bit as Rohan had some kids visiting for one of their birthdays, but we just had time to sit down at her dining table for a while and chat. I signed her copy of the book and she also offered us the privilege of being able to sign her table, which I was more than pleased to do. Evidence that I was in this beautiful lighthouse. I did tell Rohan that if she ever wants to give her home away then to just give me a call. I can certainly see the appeal of living there.
Before we left I had a quick picture with Rohan taken outside the lighthouse. It was so lovely to meet her and I felt very privileged to have been invited into her home. It was a very special day and a perfect example of why you should never (where possible) turn down an opportunity as you never know where it might take you. 🙂
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