Category: Tour Diary

Our Easter trip to Orkney was introduced in my previous post which covered our first day. The second was spent on the island of Eday. In comparison to Hoy, Eday is physically smaller and has much less to offer visitors – fortunately it does have a lighthouse at the north end, which overlooks the Calf of Eday. This was obviously our reason for choosing this island (we would have loved to go to Sanday, but the tide times weren’t going to tie in for visiting the lighthouse there). Finding somewhere to park for walking to the lighthouse wasn’t so easy. The map showed a trail along the coast and we eventually found somewhere further back than we’d hoped to set off from. Luckily the sun was out though and it was a really pleasant walk through a few fields before we reached the lighthouse. It’s in a fantastic location and the only other living creatures that appeared to be around were sheep and birds, which isn’t such a bad thing sometimes. Due to the ferry times we were then left with a few hours to kill on Eday when there wasn’t much else we could do, particularly when we had to consider that our little boy would need a sleep at some point and that the few places there were to go were closed. We had a good time on the beach though before we headed back.

The remaining day and a half were spent on Orkney Mainland where we visited a few tourist attractions we’d not been to before. In addition to this, we had two lighthouses to visit. We were staying just on the outskirts of Kirkwall at Orkney Villas‘ The Courtyard, which was a perfect base to work from. The first of the lighthouses we visited was on the west pier in Kirkwall itself, so this was just a small stroll along the pier before we headed into the town to look around. It may not be the most impressive of lighthouses, but it has its own little charm. Having looked at older pictures of the lighthouse online it looks like it’s been spruced up a bit in recent years. This would probably be explained by the following inscription, which appears on a plaque on the lighthouse: “To commemorate the 200th anniversary of Kirkwall pier 1811-2011. Designed by Thomas Telford.”

When Bob and I had last visited Orkney, we’d driven to Birsay and looked across to the tidal island, the Brough of Birsay, wondering if the tide was going in or out and whether we could make it across and back to bag the lighthouse at the top of the island. Me being more cautious than Bob when it comes to decision-making, we decided it would be too risky and that we’d have to visit again. So to be able to plan our visit around the tides this time was a bonus. We set off across the (sometimes slippery) path which becomes exposed at low tide to see the lighthouse. As I’ve found with every other tidal island I’ve ever been to, it was a great place. There are remains of ancient buildings just as you reach the island. We, of course, set straight off for the highest point where the lighthouse could be found. It is a stunning lighthouse with a really interesting design in an amazing location, so it was a joy to visit. Very few others who visit the Brough of Birsay seem to go that far (or at least they didn’t on that particular day), which makes it even more enjoyable. The views from the lighthouse of the neighbouring islands and the coastal landscape are very impressive. I would love to go back again some day.

So, that was it for our lighthouse bagging during our visit to Orkney. We did, however, get some good views of the two lighthouses on Graemsay, Hoy High and Hoy Low, from the ferry as we left though. We had tried to work out a way of getting a trip to Graemsay added to our itinerary for the weekend, but with the boat times it just wasn’t going to happen. Something for another time. Hoy High lighthouse stands tall and differs greatly in height from Hoy Low, which is a squat tower. Both designed by Alan Stevenson, there is no denying that they are beautiful structures. Hopefully one day we will get a much closer look at them.

We were then treated to some wonderful views of the domineering cliffs of Hoy as well as the Old Man of Hoy as the ferry sailed past. That is the joy of taking that particular route on the ferry rather than the Gills Bay ferry.

We still have plenty left to see and do on the Orkney islands so expect more in the future at some point 🙂

We always like to make the most of a long weekend and we usually end up travelling a fair distance to do so. This Easter was a bit different though. For a change we decided to stay a bit closer to home and check out a bit more of Orkney, as I had only spent one day on Orkney mainland before. For many Orkney would be a pretty long-haul journey, but we were pleased to just go for a short drive before hopping on the ferry for once.

Our first full day was spent on Hoy, which is a pretty amazing island. A day is definitely not long enough, but we made the most of the time we had and – as well as lighthouse bagging – we went to Sandwick Bay, the Dwarfie Stane, the Scapa Flow Visitors Centre and Betty Corrigal’s grave (the story of Betty is incredible – you can find out more on the Hoy Orkney website). The boat journey across to Hoy enabled us to see the lighthouse on the Calf of Cava. Although it isn’t as majestic as the Stevenson lighthouses, I have become quite fond of this style of lighthouse. We were also able to get distant views of Barrel of Butter, which – unfortunately – doesn’t qualify for my lighthouse list based on my definition (as described in my last post). It’s a pretty good name though – I believe it has something to do with the cost of lighthouse dues in the past, something like that!

Of course the main draw of visiting Hoy for me was Cantick Head lighthouse, which we went for first. We always love spotting a “For sale” sign on the gate of a lighthouse – not that we could afford to buy a lighthouse, or former keeper’s cottage – but there’s always the hope that one day we might! We have occasionally been known to take advantage of these sales for getting closer to certain lighthouses! The lighthouse at Cantick Head has been operational now for over 150 years and it is currently possible to rent the old keepers cottages for holidays. Next time, that’s what we’ll be doing!

The second lighthouse we were hoping to visit while on Hoy was Tor Ness on the west coast. We were hopeful that we would make it there, although it involved a bit of a walk (and with a 2-year-old that’s not always easy, especially as we discovered later that day that the carrier we had for him had suddenly become too small!). As we approached and began to drive around it became apparent that it might not be as straightforward as we’d hoped. The nearest access route to the lighthouse is across croft land and, although the farmer was happy enough for us to proceed, we were fully aware that the first stage of the walk would involve walking through a field of cows, some with calves. We decided that it wasn’t worth the risk and that we’d review it a bit more for next time. Better to be safe and sensible about it. Besides, it’s another reason/excuse to go back!

More on Orkney to follow tomorrow! 🙂

I alluded to a search exercise Bob and I carried out over the winter (and have been working towards for the last few years) a couple of posts ago. This exercise had two parts:

1. To establish my own definition of what constitutes a “lighthouse”
2. To do a scoping exercise, based on the above definition, into which structures I need to add to my “to bag” list

The first point above sounds easier than it is in practice, because there are in fact many factors to take into consideration. Obviously there are the majestic structures (those designed by the Stevensons in Scotland, for example) that we all know and love, but what about the smaller lights on piers or tucked away off of the beaten track? While some might say they don’t deserve to be viewed in the same regard, does it mean they aren’t a lighthouse? And if they are still lighthouses, how do you know? What type of structure do they need to be? What range does their light need to have to warrant such a title, rather than “beacon”, for example?

It would be easy to place a blanket definition from the comfort of your own home, but when you start to look at the lighthouses that exist out there and how there are areas of change (the reduction of light ranges, the discontinuation of lights, etc.) it suddenly becomes more tricky an exercise.

It was only over the winter just gone that I decided on my own definition, which is: A fixed structure that was built to exhibit a light for the purpose of aiding maritime navigation and allows access for at least one person inside any part of it.

This definition is similar to that described by Ken Trethewey in his really interesting article “What Is A Lighthouse? A Modern Definition”, which was published in World Lighthouse Society Magazine (1st Quarter 2013, Volume 11, Issue 1, p5-14). This is available at www.worldlighthouses.org. I would say that the main difference between our definitions is that mine is more inclusive of redundant lighthouses. Of course, this is my personal definition and, while my key interest is in the structures themselves, I recognise that some lighthouse baggers may prioritise other aspects, for example, the light’s range, which would require a different definition.

The reason I have chosen this particular blog post to explain my definition is because the unusual lighthouse on Lady Isle, 2 miles off of the Ayrshire coast, could easily have slipped through the net of my definition! It is such lighthouses as these, which are substantial structures but contain very little in the way of a tower, that is the reason I chose to specify that a person needed to be able to fit into any part of it. You will see from the picture that the lighthouse actually has an external staircase leading up to an enclosed lamp room – the lamp room being the part that qualifies it as a lighthouse within my definition.

A good friend of ours had managed to secure us a boatman to take a group of us out to Lady Isle on a particularly lovely day in April (yes, I am delayed with my posts as usual). While I mentioned above the Lady Isle is only 2 miles off of the coast, our departure point of Largs made for a slightly longer journey (not that we minded as it gave us a view of Little Cumbrae, which we visited last year, and we had an excuse to get an ice cream from Nardini’s once we’d got back).

Fortunately the sea was fairly calm that day, which made for a (mostly) smooth RIB ride and an easy landing on Lady Isle. You cannot help but admire the unique design of the lighthouse with it’s red and white cross-sectional pillar, spiral staircase and lamp room. It certainly dominates the island. Looking back at the history of the island, there were actually two beacons (one of which still remains and the other in the position of the lighthouse) to guide vessels to safety. In 1903 the current lighthouse was introduced.

Although it is so close to civilisation (if you compare it to a number of more remote island lighthouses), you still get a sense of isolation out there and that’s one thing that I particularly like about these places.

On our return journey back to Largs the boatman kindly sailed us fairly close to Lappock Rock Beacon, which is just a mile from the coast. Bob was particularly keen to see this close up and, being brought up in Troon, he had seen it from the mainland for many years. It’s another unique structure and, although it doesn’t qualify as a lighthouse under my definition (there is no internal access) it was still good to see.

We were also treated to close-up views of Horse Isle and the large stone tower at its south end. Since the trip I’ve done some research into this tower to see if it was ever used as a lighthouse or beacon. Some sources suggest it was built as an aid to navigation, but mapping just describes it as a “landmark” or “tower”. If it was used as a lighthouse, and was ever lit in the past, then it would certainly qualify for inclusion on my list. Perhaps one to look into a bit more 🙂

Following on from my previous post, we continued our visit to new lighthouses in Aberdeenshire. On my tour, and on more recent visits, I’d seen a variety of the lights in Aberdeen itself. Of course there’s Girdle Ness, as well as the interesting little white structure on the end of the south breakwater. In addition we’d spotted one of the Torry leading lights at the side of the road too, but had managed to miss the other. So, one aim was to spot the other of the Torry lights, which incidentally is on the other side of the same road a little further back! It looks exactly the same as its partner down the road, but features a small blue plaque stating that is was built in 1842 by the Harbour Trustees.  These two lighthouses were built to lead vessels safely into the harbour after the south breakwater and north pier were constructed – which led to the harbour entrance becoming narrower.

The second of the lighthouses we hadn’t seen in Aberdeen was that at the end of the north pier. Having looked at the map, we already had a feeling that accessing this one might be tricky. Using a long lens on the camera while we were there confirmed this as there is an impassable gate a short way along the pier. We estimated that the views across to the lighthouse from Greyhope Road (the road leading out to Girdle Ness) was the closest we could get. And so that’s where we went. We did also drive around to Esplanade later on that day, but there were no better views from there. Sometimes you just need to admit defeat and settle for the best you can do!

Our next, and final, lighthouse of the day was at the fishing village of Gourdon, south of Aberdeen. The rear range lighthouse that sits at the side of Brae Road isn’t too dissimilar to that at the side of the Caledonian Canal at Fort Augustus. Although you can walk right up to this one, it’s not so easy to get a good picture of it as it’s fairly surrounded by houses and trees. The picture shown here is probably the best I could do on the day.

So that was it for day two of our trip. Day three, however, was even more exciting as Bob had managed to arrange a visit to Covesea Skerries lighthouse on our way back home. When I visited Covesea back in 2012 it had sadly just been switched off. Over the past 5 years there has been a lot of work done by the local community to get the lighthouse open as a tourist attraction. They have a great website, http://covesealighthouse.co.uk, where you can find the contact details for arranging a visit. It’s run by volunteers so it’s not possible to just turn up, unless you arrive at 10am or 11am on a Saturday during the summer. After a bit of planning via text message with Sheila (one of the volunteer team), we managed to organise a visit for the Sunday, thanks to the very accommodating team – particularly Lynne and Graham who showed us around and allowed our little boy up to the top – he was very proud to have climbed to the top!

They have obviously put a lot of time and energy into opening the lighthouse up. They’ve even had local students there painting it. Of course, opening any building up to the public brings a lot of safety regulations along with it and they seem to have managed this really well without making any areas off limits. There were fantastic 360 degree views from the top of the lighthouse across the sea to the north and then Lossiemouth to the east. It was a great place to see across to RAF Lossiemouth too and they’d had a variety of planes landing and taking off from there just the day before our visit. The lamp itself has now been removed, unfortunately, but we were informed that it has now found a home at Lossiemouth Fisheries and & Community Museum (although this was closed on the day we were in the area, so we’ll need to pop back some time).

It was a fantastic opportunity and we are so grateful to Sheila, Lynne and Graham for making it possible. I would highly recommend it. I see it only getting better and better as more and more people become aware of it. Fingers crossed they keep getting the support they need 🙂

Our summer holiday for this year had been booked for the Isles of Scilly, which presented the perfect opportunity for a quick stop at a couple of Cornish lighthouses I had yet to see.

The first of these was at Mevagissey, just south of St Austell on the South Cornwall coast. It’s a lovely little place with plenty of gift and craft shops for tourists and some great pubs and eateries on the seafront with views across the harbour. The lighthouse sits on the end of the south breakwater and has done since 1896 – although it has been well-maintained and is clearly regularly re-painted. The white tower with a black band at the bottom is 8 metres tall and made of cast iron. The spot is popular with fishermen, which was evident during our visit. I was particularly pleased that we were joined by my parents for this lighthouse visit as I couldn’t recall ever having visited a lighthouse with them both (the closest we’d been previously was on our wedding day). Mevagissey is a perfect example of a small, visitor-friendly fishing village. Driving around it may be a challenge, but parking is easy enough in the public car parks to avoid the narrow, pedestrian-filled roads.

The challenge of driving around Mevagissey pales into insignificance though in comparison to our second stop, St Ives. To start with it’s like a maze, with roads of varying sizes all over the place going uphill, downhill and everywhere. Secondly, it’s busy – and I don’t just mean on the roads (which actually weren’t too bad considering – clearly everyone knows St Ives better than we do and uses the Park & Ride). There are a lot of people in St Ives though. There are also very few places to park. Once we’d found a road close enough to the pier (we managed to avoid the easy route straight along the seafront) and decided it was too risky to drive down the narrow road with tight bends, I leapt out and hurried down to the pier while Bob sat in the car in a cul-de-sac. Smeaton’s Pier had a surprise lined up for me though, boasting not one lighthouse, but two! I’ve since read that the original lighthouse, built in 1831 by John Smeaton (of Smeaton’s Tower fame), was replaced in 1890 by the new lighthouse after the pier was extended. The old lighthouse is a more rustic and, in my opinion, attractive tower. The new tower, apart from being a metre taller and octagonal, looks very similar to that of Mevagissey, which was based upon the design of the St Ives tower. Although my visit was a bit rushed, it was great to see an example of lighthouse heritage in St Ives and another of Smeaton’s creations.

Overall, it was a successful day in a county in which I very rarely find myself. Setting aside the challenging roads, both places were well worth a visit 🙂

So, lighthouse bagging season begins again…

At the end of March, we made the most of the long Easter weekend and booked a trip to Skye to discover a bit more about what goes on south of the bridge. We’d both been to the centre of the island a few times, but seen very little of the south. We booked ourselves into an annexe at Tigh Na Cairdean in Duisdale, owned by the lovely Emma and Jon. They very kindly left us some fresh eggs (as well as chocolate eggs) on Easter Sunday!

The forecast wasn’t looking great so we decided that the relatively “dry” day would be the best day for a walk to the Point of Sleat, the very southern tip of Skye. We set off on the five-mile walk from Aird of Sleat – all kitted out in waterproofs, which we didn’t actually need for the first hour or so and even after that the rain wasn’t much more than drizzle. The path was initially quite good and we happily splashed through puddles in our wellies – partly to entertain our son, but mostly because it’s what you do when you’re wearing wellies (isn’t it?!)

The path got a little more interesting after we began heading south off of the main track. Due to the amount of rain in recent days, the path was pretty wet and muddy and we were both even more glad of the wellies at that point. The track passes by the secluded Camas Daraich beach, which we chose to save for the return journey. Past the beach it felt like we were heading out further and further without making much progress, but once we’d spotted the lighthouse at the very end of the point and navigated our way down a slope, we arrived.

Being a “flat-pack”-style lighthouse (as I often refer to them), the structure lacked the beauty of the traditional lighthouses, but the surroundings certainly helped to make it appear better than the average “flat-pack” lighthouse. Although the cloud was low, we were able to see across to Eigg and it’s little neighbouring island of Eilean Chathastail, which we had visited last year, and to the east at various points of the walk we could see the mountains of Knoydart.

We stopped for lunch near the lighthouse, with Bob pulling a 4-man group shelter out of his bag for us to sit under. It’s essentially like being in a tent, but you use your heads to keep it up at either end and sit on it to keep the weather out. All in all quite a fun little picnic!

On our way back we stopped off at Camas Daraich beach, which may not have looked its best with the grey skies, but would certainly be quite a find on a nice, sunny Scottish day! The walk back went well and we stopped off at the Clan Donald Centre at Armadale Castle on the way back to warm up and dry out.

The following day we had some time to kill in the morning – we were waiting on the tide, you see to get to the next lighthouse. We decided to pop to Kyleakin for a ride on Seaprobe Atlantis, a glass-bottomed boat that offers various tours of the local area. Fortunately, the trip we were on took us north underneath the bridge, providing us with another view of the Eilean Ban lighthouse and the cottage we stayed at last year. We’ve now seen it from above, from inside, from the island itself and now from the sea. I don’t think we can do much more to improve on this one! Watching the underwater wildlife from the bottom of the boat was really quite fascinating. Not being a particular fan of being submerged in water, it’s not something I’d experienced before, so it was a great little trip.

Now, back to that tide and the plans we had during low tide. On my lighthouse tour I’d been to Isleornsay and looked across the water at the lighthouse on Eilean Sionnach, but the tide had been in, so there was no chance to get across to it. Even if the tide had been out, I would have been hesitant to wander on over. My theory with any tidal island is to make sure you do your tide research first, unless you fancy getting stranded overnight! [2021 edit: the cottage is now available as a holiday let which actually makes being stranded there sound idyllic].

Fortunately, Bob had done the research this time so I didn’t have to. The realisation that the clocks had changed overnight came as a bit of a shock and led to some confusion (for me anyway), but we got it sorted and set off across to the tidal island of Ornsay to then wander along to the further tidal island of Eilean Sionnach. It’s not often that you get the opportunity to walk across to a tidal island to then walk to an additional one. It also means you need to be extra careful with your timings though!

As we walked across, for a change we were attempted to the stick to the seaweed rather than the soft sand. We’d learnt earlier in the day on the Seaprobe Atlantis that seaweed sticks to rocks and doesn’t have roots in sand as we had previously thought. So, treading on it (although it may have been slippy) was preferable to sinking into the sand. We made it across the first stretch of exposed sand and then across to Eilean Sionnach. There is a house on the island, the former lighthouse keepers cottages, which are currently being renovated. We made a mental note to keep an eye on it. If it becomes available as a holiday let then we’ll be there!

Unlike the lighthouse at the Point of Sleat, this one is a traditional Stevenson lighthouse, first lit in 1857. What I find particularly interesting about this one is that, unlike many of the others within Scotland (and the Isle of Man for that matter), it is not monitored remotely from the Northern Lighthouse Board’s headquarters, but instead relies upon an observer to let them know if there are any problems. The most amazing thing about this lighthouse though has to be the fantastic views across to the Knoydart mountains. We found a small mound a short distance from the lighthouse that provided a panoramic scene of the lighthouse with the mountains in the background – we were obviously both happy with that.

Fortunately, we decided to leave the lighthouse after a short time to make sure we got back across the sand before the tide came in. Our return path was a little less direct due to the already incoming tide, so once we reached the mainland of Skye we hugged the coast a little more closely and made it safely back.

We had a great weekend and were really pleased to be able to explore a part of Skye that had been fairly unknown to us beforehand. Since we took a trip there last year and another this year, I’ve informed Bob that it should now be an annual tradition. We’ve still got Waternish Point to get to after all! 🙂