Continuing the lighthouse-related fun alongside 21 other Association of Lighthouse Keepers members, there was plenty to do on Wednesday, starting out in Falmouth.

With any potential for internal access to St Anthony Lighthouse ruled out, I’d followed the lead of those who had organised the first ALK trip to Cornwall and arranged a boat to sail around the lighthouse. We’d chartered a fairly small boat with Cornish Pleasure Cruises that would be more than big enough to take the whole group, but we were delighted to be upgraded to their wonderful Dixie Belle which could accommodate up to 100 people so there was masses of space for us to spread out.

On the boat trip we were joined by Chris Nicholson and his wife. Chris is the author of one of the very first lighthouse books I owned, The Rock Lighthouses of Britain. It’s a fantastic book that’s recently been updated and even includes a few pictures taken by yours truly. He’s made my already pretty good (if I do say so myself) picture of Longstone Lighthouse with seals in the foreground look stunning!

The charter was due to only last an hour, but after setting off it seemed the skipper George was in no hurry at all, which was even better. We got a closer look at some of the massive military ships moored up there, and we poked our heads (or the boat) around towards Falmouth Bay too with it’s various beaches. There was some rather amusing commentary happening too, which seemed to make my ALK friend Anne and I chuckle far more than it did anyone else. Clearly we are very easily pleased!

This little detour gave us a longer run up to St Anthony which was no problem at all. The skipper pointed out The Manacles to the south. These are a series of rocks that ships entering Falmouth, travelling from the west, really need to watch out for. St Anthony Lighthouse assists with exactly that by displaying a flashing red sector light (as well as it’s normal white light) 24 hours a day to ensure ships take the safe course around the Manacles.

St Anthony really is a beautiful lighthouse and the view from the sea is definitely the best angle to capture that from. When the sun shines on the brilliant white tower with it’s black detail at the top and all the lush green vegetation behind it, it’s just like a little piece of paradise.

We had plenty of time to gaze at the lighthouse, chat amongst ourselves, buy tea or coffee on board, and generally enjoy the sunshine before we set off back for Falmouth. More funny commentary followed, much to mine and Anne’s delight.

Bidding farewell to the Dixie Belle and her crew, we set off for the National Maritime Museum. The museum doesn’t contain a huge amount of lighthouse-specific information, but the thing I found most interesting about it is that the bottom two floors of the building are actually underwater at high tide. It was around mid-tide when we arrived so we could look through the really tall windows and see that some was under water at that point.

What I liked most about it was that it reminded me a bit of a rock lighthouse. It’s a circular building that’s got lower sections that are often underwater. It’s really very interesting – or at least I thought so!

With Joe the Drone missing out on this boat trip, he was obviously keen to get his little blades out and about to take a look too. Leaving Falmouth behind it was time to go for the land-based approach to St Anthony. After the long drive (and ferry ride) to get there, you are rewarded with a really beautiful short walk to reach the lighthouse gate. Along the walk there are some fabulous views. My favourite was probably looking north towards St Mawes with the nearby Little and Great Molunan beaches looking perfect.

At the end of the path you reach the gate to the lighthouse, which is really very close, but at the same time so inaccessible. The cottage here is available to rent through Rural Retreats, but it is rather expensive. At Anthony Lighthouse is, of course, the one that appears in the title sequence of the very enjoyable TV series Fraggle Rock. If only the Fraggles and Doozers were seen wandering about outside the lighthouse, it would be sure to make for quite an attraction!

Joe the Drone went for his long-awaited spin.

The joy of Cornwall lies in many sights and other things, but not really in the time it takes to get between places. Living on the north coast of Scotland, I should really be used to long distances, but the roads in Cornwall (and the number of cars) puts it on a whole different level. The evening was reserved for a visit to Pendeen Lighthouse and it took a good amount of time to get there from St Anthony. Fortunately though there was a little time to spare after arriving so aside from chatting to some of the other early arrivers, I spent some time making myself comfy on the grass with views along the glorious coastline to the south west.

Meanwhile Joe the Drone had a fly about.

When the time arrived we wandered down to the lighthouse and were greeted by Nick who had been a huge help in getting us access to a few lighthouses on this trip, and the one we’d run last year too. Nick is a Senior Technician for Trinity House and without his help getting into Pendeen and the others to follow just wouldn’t have happened. I should add at this point that getting access isn’t as simple as asking Nick. The final decision lies with Trinity House and the ALK’s insurance is a requirement of this – just in case anyone thought it was easy!

It was a wonderfully calm evening with sunshine and very little wind. Apparently that’s unusual for Pendeen which is quite frequently shrouded in fog.

Pendeen Lighthouse will shortly be undergoing some changes with the lens being removed and the light source being replaced by a LED. This is becoming a widespread activity as part of the lighthouse authorities’ obligation to remove mercury from their lighthouses in the next few years. There are other ways around removing the lenses with a LED being installed inside the lens instead, but the decision of what to do with each lighthouse is entirely up to Trinity House. There have been, and no doubt will continue to be, arguments over this, and it’s not something I want to get caught up on. In this case I’m just glad I was able to see the lens in situ.

I actually really enjoyed visiting the lighthouse in the evening. This was arranged purely for practical reasons around Nick’s availability, but it was quieter by that point and the lower sunlight makes everything feel a lot more chilled out.

Alongside Nick we had Bill and Dan so we were split into two groups for looking around. I was very amused at the display of lamps that Nick was able to show us from the big, old ones getting progressively smaller and smaller until it was just the tiny LEDs. It was amusing because the group insisted on taking pictures of every single one with Nick doing his best to attempt to keep out of the pictures.

We had plenty of time to look around and once we were all done we headed along to Pendeen village for a big group meal. I’d phoned ahead and thankfully the North Inn were able to accommodate us. It’s always a really important part of ALK events, I find. Following the meal we popped back to Pendeen to get some pictures of the light in action.

While in the Land’s End area we also stopped off there to see which lights we could see. Wolf Rock’s light is far more visible from that point at night than it is by day, and of course the light on Longships could be seen as well as a couple of buoys.

It had been a busy but good day with some excellent variety, and some laughs along the way too 🙂