On Saturday we began our journey down towards Montrose for the opening of Scurdie Ness lighthouse as part of the Angus Coastal Festival (more on that in my next blog post). On the way down Bob asked me which of the lighthouses I felt I needed to visit again to get a closer view. My response was that near enough all of them could do with a re-visit! I’d not been to a number of those harbour lights along the Moray coast since my original tour back in 2012, so my second visit was long overdue.

We realised that we had a bit of a race against the sunset in order to see them well. We failed that miserably so it turned into a ‘seeing the lights as daylight fades and the lights come on’. Our first stop was Buckie where there are two lights to see. The first one we went to (as it was on the way to the harbour anyway) was the one on Cliff Terrace. It’s an odd building, but there were certain details that I’d not noticed on my previous visits, such as engraving on the door and little designs up near the light. The sun was already going down by this point and the light on the tower was great. The only problem was that there were a couple with their dog sitting on the base of the tower in exactly the spot that would have been a perfect angle to get a good picture. Nonetheless I got some pictures anyway and we continued on our way to the harbour.

I’d only seen the Buckie pier light from a bit of a distance in the past. For some reason I’d not walked right up to it. It’s a really big tower considering it’s only a harbour light – or at least it was when it was operational. It has suffered some damage to the seaward side of the tower and birds appear to have taken up residence near the lantern. It’s a real shame as it would be a lovely lighthouse to have a look around. Judging by the exterior I’m assuming the interior would probably no longer be safe for anyone to enter. It’s sad, but it’s still there and I’m glad I took a closer look this time.

On the way back to the main road we stopped off again at the Cliff Terrace light to get pictures without people in. The light wasn’t as good at that point, but it’s always worth going back to these places once the people have gone. The sunset seemed to occur quite quickly while we were in Buckie and I discovered afterwards that it was the equinox, and the sun always sets faster at this time of year. In fact, on Saturday it set quicker than on any other day this year.

As we were in the area we stopped at Cullen. I am very fond of the Cullen lighthouse, although I don’t really know why. It’s no longer active and was adopted by the community who did it up after it was falling into disrepair. It’s looking great, if a little strange, now.

Whitehills was our next stop. Rather an odd one again, but the light was well and truly on by this point. It’s a little LED that sits on top of the short tower. The tower looks taller from a distance, but it’s only when you get closer you realise the bottom is the end of the harbour wall painted white and it’s just the little bit on top that is the actual lighthouse.

Macduff was a great one. The light in this one is still active, although it was quite difficult to get a good picture of from close range in twilight, mainly because it has a really bright light attached to the side of the tower. That and there was a fishing boat on its way in with an even brighter light. Bob found a fantastic angle for taking a picture from and it helps that he manages to get really good images in low light too. The picture below was taken from a gap in the pier wall and you can see the final little bit of daylight disappearing over the horizon as well as Jupiter sparkling in the sky.

The final little light of the night, because it was dark by this point, was at Rosehearty. By this point it was cold. It was also difficult to see where you were stepping as we walked along the pier to the tower. Once we got to the end it wasn’t exactly the most inspiring of lighthouses, so I quickly had a wander up the steps to see the door before heading back to the car, while Bob stayed for a minute longer to get some pictures.

I thought that would be it for the day, but I was busily working away on my laptop in the car and looked up and there was the light on the modern tower at Kinnaird Head flashing away. It looked like it was the back-up light outside the tower that was in use, which was a bit of shame, but it was still nice to be there in the dark. One day I hope they will host another event where they turn the big light back on again. That would be wonderful to see.

Again, thinking that was us done for the day and we should head to the hotel, we were just driving out of Peterhead when Bob asked where Buchan Ness was. Of course, I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity of seeing a big lighthouse flashing at night, so I directed us there. I was a little disappointed to find that it is now the LED lights in there, so the light just comes on and goes off rather than there being any sweeping beam anymore. It was still lovely to see though, even if we had no idea where the tower was when the light was off!

It was a wonderful evening and really nice for a change to see the lights coming on, doing what they do best. 🙂