Mull of Kintyre Lighthouse
| Mull of Kintyre Lighthouse | ||
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| Place: | Mull of Kintyre | |
| Location: | Argyll and Bute , Scotland , United Kingdom | |
| Geographical location: | 55 ° 18 '37.5 " N , 5 ° 48' 11.7" W | |
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| Construction time: | 1786-1788 | |
| Operating time: | since 1788 | |
The Mull of Kintyre Lighthouse , German Mull-of-Kintyre-Leuchtturm , is a lighthouse on the southern tip of the Scottish Kintyre peninsula , known as the Mull of Kintyre . In 1971 the Mull of Kintyre Lighthouse was initially listed in the Scottish Monuments Lists in Category B, but was then upgraded to the highest Category A in 1998. The tower itself is only 12 m high, but is located above the steep coast of the Mull of Kintyre, so that it has a fire height of 91 m. Its location is now considered rather unfavorable, as it is positioned too far northwest to mark the entrance to the Firth of Clyde and is also often shrouded in fog.
history
After a period of strong storms in 1782 two herring fishing boats crashed on the Mull of Kintyre that same night and a large number of casualties were to be mourned, it was decided to build a lighthouse at this location. The contract was awarded to the designer Peter Stuart from Campbeltown awarded the 1786 began construction. Because of the rugged and steep coast of the Mull of Kintyre, a landing of boats to provide the building material was impossible, so the transport took place over land. This also turned out to be difficult, as there were no roads or settlements in the area at that time and the way over the boggy subsoil was arduous. Nevertheless, the lighthouse was completed in 1788 after a 22-month construction period and put into operation on November 1st of that year.
From 1817, the lighthouse keepers received an allowance of £ 5 a year, as the ten kilometer walk to the supply of food made it necessary to keep a horse. Between 1821 and 1830, the well-known lighthouse engineer Robert Stevenson built a new, more solid lighthouse on this site. In 1876 a fog horn was added to the Mull of Kintyre lighthouse as one of the first lighthouses in Scotland . In 1906 the luminosity was increased to around 275,000 cd . After a second increase in 1976 as part of the conversion to a catadioptric system , the lighthouse was finally fully automated in 1996.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Listed Building - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
- ↑ a b c Information from the Northern Lighthouse Board
- ↑ a b c Entry on Mull of Kintyre Lighthouse in Canmore, the database of Historic Environment Scotland (English)
Web links
- Entry on Mull of Kintyre Lighthouse in Canmore, Historic Environment Scotland database