Lighthouses in the UK, so why visit a lighthouse?

Lighthouses were created out of a necessity to protect passing ships travelling to UK ports and harbours. The very first used large open fire metal baskets, although were some earlier examples of lanterns being lit on the cliff tops.

What we recognise today as a lighthouse is a tall tower with a system of lamps and lenses. This design has gone through many iterations, starting as wood then moving on to stone construction and now fully automated with no need to have lighthouse keepers.

New modern lighthouses are usually illuminated by a single stationary flashing light powered by solar or generator charged batteries mounted on a steel skeleton tower.

Visiting UK Lighthouses

So why visit a lighthouse?

To us, it comes down to location, location, location! If you think about it, lighthouses were created to warn shipping travelling to ports of reefs and promontories. Although we have these new modern lighthouses the original lighthouses are part of the UK’s heritage and many are protected listed buildings in some of the UK’s most spectacular coastlines. Thus, to sum up it is about visiting some of the most beautiful and wild parts of the UK.

Not many lighthouses actually allow access although a few do have visitor centres and some have the lighthouse keeper cottages turned into holiday accommodation.

Lighthouses with visitor centres:

Some lighthouses are no longer operational and are in the care of the National Trust but many more also sit on coastline managed by the National Trust.

Lighthouses UK Map

Below you can see an interactive map of UK lighthouses:

UK Lighthouse List

Below you can see our full list of UK lighthouses:

Point of Ayre Lighthouse

The Point of Ayre Lighthouse is an active 19th-century lighthouse that was first lit in 1818, making it the oldest operational lighthouse on the island. The lighthouse is located at the Point of Ayre at the north-eastern end of the Isle of Man and was designed and built by Robert Stevenson, grandfather of prolific writer and novelist Robert Louis Stevenson. The point has shingle and gravel deposited by the Read more…

Douglas Head Lighthouse

The Douglas Head Lighthouse marks the entrance to Douglas Bay on the east coast of the Isle of Man. The lighthouse is 32 metres (105 ft) split between the tower at 20 metres (66 ft) and its base at 12 metres (39 ft). Read more…

Chicken Rock Lighthouse

Chicken Rock Lighthouse sits on an island at the southern end of the Isle of Man. Completed at the end of 1874, the 44-metre-high (144 ft) tapered tower is constructed of granite and was designed by David and Thomas Stevenson. The lighthouse was automated in 1961. Although the Calf of Man has its own lighthouse it can often be obscured Read more…

Port Erin Lighthouse

Port Erin has two lighthouses, the first is a traditional tower lighthouse on the beach whilst the second is on the stone pier “Raglan Pier”, named after the Governor. The Port Erin beach lighthouse is concrete construction and is 33ft high. On the promenade above the tower are a rear light, a red and white striped lampost with a red Read more…

Calf of Man Lighthouse

The Calf of Man and its offshore rocks have four lighthouses, the High and Low Lights, the new light and the Chicken Rock light. The original (1816/1818) two lights consisted of two circular stone towers with light keepers accommodation with the two towers, 560 feet apart, aligned to indicate a safe course past the dangerous Chicken Rock. These were known Read more…

Point of Ayr Lighthouse

The Point of Ayr Lighthouse, also known as the Talacre Lighthouse, is a grade II listed building situated on Talcre beach on the north coast of Wales, on the Point of Ayr, near the village of Talacre. The lighthouse is around 60 ft (18m) tall, 18ft in diameter and has oak pile foundations, was built in 1776 by a Trust Read more…

St. Bees Lighthouse

St. Bees Lighthouse is located on St Bees Head south of the harbours of Maryport, Workington and Whitehaven. This is an area of cliffs that was a danger to small coastal vessels trading between the ports of Wales and the Solway Firth. In 1822, St. Bees’ original tower was destroyed by fire and Trinity House decided to substitute the coal Read more…

Withernsea Lighthouse

Withernsea Lighthouse was built in 1892 due to a high number of shipwrecks when vessels couldn’t see the lighthouse at Flamborough or Spurn Head. Although, it is unusual in that it sits in the centre of the resort when it was built it was outside the houses within the sand dunes. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1976 and is now Read more…

Seaham Lighthouse

Seaham Lighthouse was erected in 1905 when the nearby Red Acre Point lighthouse was decommissioned. The lighthouse is a black-and-white striped pier-head light with a tower height of 10m and a range of 5 miles. Read more…

La Corbiere Lighthouse

The La Corbière lighthouse sits on the south-western point of Jersey and is connected via a tidal causeway to La Corbière Beach. Like most lighthouse location this is a spectacular part of the coastline and is very popular with photographers wanting a great sunset picture. This stretch of coast has a large tidal range that can expose treacherous rocks. The Read more…

Rubha nan Gall lighthouse

Rubha nan Gall lighthouse is located north of Tobermory looking over the Sound of Mull. The name means “Stranger’s Point” in Scottish Gaelic. The lighthouse was built by David and Thomas Stevenson in 1857 and the lighthouse was automated in 1960 with the nearby former keepers’ cottages now privately owned. Access is by sea or a 1.3 mile (2.1 kilometres) Read more…

Neist Point Lighthouse

Neist Point Lighthouse is situated on the West Coast of Skye, was designed by David Alan Stevenson and was first lit in November 1909. An aerial cableway is used to take supplies to the lighthouse and cottages. Since 1990, the lighthouse has been operated remotely with the former keepers’ cottages now in private ownership. . Read more…

Needles Lighthouse

Needles Lighthouse is set in the western approaches to the Isle of Wight, the Needles form a narrow chalky peninsula that rises from jagged rocks to 120m cliffs. These rocks have always been a hazard to ships making their way up the Solent to Portsmouth and Southampton Water. Read more…

Portland Bill Lighthouse

Portland Bill and Chesil Beach are the graveyards of many vessels that failed to reach Weymouth or Portland Roads. The Portland Race is caused by the meeting of the tides between the Bill and the Shambles sandbank about 3 miles SE. Strong currents break the sea so fiercely that from the shore a continuous disturbance can be seen. Portland Bill Read more…

Anvil Point Lighthouse

Built from local stone, Anvil Point Lighthouse was completed in 1881 and opened by Neville Chamberlain’s father, then Minister of Transport. Anvil Point is sometimes referred to as Durlston Lighthouse. The light is positioned to give a waypoint for vessels on passage along the English Channel coast. To the west, it gives a clear line from Portland Bill and to Read more…

Flamborough Lighthouse

A lighthouse was first established at Flamborough by Sir John Clayton in 1669 but was never kindled. The name Flamborough was first thought to be derived from it being the place of the flame, but in the Domesday book, the word is spelt “Flaneberg”, possibly from the Saxon “Flaen” meaning a dart, which the shape of the headland resembles. The Read more…

Beachy Head Lighthouse

Beachy Head is sited about 165 metres seawards from the base of the cliffs. It is said that as early as 1670 a light shone to guide passing vessels from the top of the cliffs at Beachy Head, the 90 metres high seaward termination of the Sussex Downs. In 1828 James Walker erected Belle Toute Lighthouse, a 14-metre high circular Read more…

Godrevy Lighthouse

Godrevy Island is situated 3½ miles across St.Ives Bay, where rugged cliffs rise from the sea. Gulls, oyster-catchers and pipits make their homes on the island, which is partly covered with grass, as it slopes down to the sea. In springtime, carpets of brightly coloured primroses, sea thrift and heather bring beauty to the scene, for although the island is Read more…

Mumbles Lighthouse

For over 200 years the Mumbles Lighthouse has guided vessels along the coast and into Swansea Bay, past the hazards of the Mixon Shoal ½ mile to the South. This unmanned lighthouse is built on the outer of two islands, known as Mumbles Head, lying about 500 yards to the E.S.E. of the mainland known as Mumbles, Swansea. The station Read more…

Trevose Head Lighthouse

Trevose Head lighthouse’s light is situated on the northwest extremity of the head, with gigantic cliffs of grey granite rising sheer from the sea to a height of 150 feet or more. The headland is managed by the National Trust and offers large car parks and some nice walks with spectacular coastal scenery. Read more…

Langness Lighthouse

The Langness Lighthouse was established in 1880 at Dreswick Point on the eastern side. The lighthouse has a white tower 19 metres high and incorporates 77 steps to the top of the tower. Read more…

Maughold Head Lighthouse

The Maughold Head Lighthouse was built in 1914 and sits on a headland at the southern end of Ramsey Bay. The 23m high lighthouse tower, with the lighthouse keepers’ accommodation built on the headland above the tower at the same level as the lantern. A set of 127 steps links the tower to the keeper’s cottage. Read more…

Mew Island Lighthouse

The Mew Island Lighthouse replaced the original lighthouse on Lighthouse Island in 1884. the lighthouse is currently active and was converted to automatic operation with the lighthouse keepers permanently withdrawn in 1996. Read more…

Kinnaird Head Lighthouse and Museum

Kinnaird Head Lighthouse was the very first lighthouse on mainland Scotland and Kinnaird Head now has two lighthouses: The first lighthouse was built in 1787 within the existing 16th-century castle tower. In 1824 a new stone tower was constructed within the castle. The current is a fibreglass automated light that stands beside the original. The original lighthouse is now Read more…

North Ronaldsay Lighthouse

North Ronaldsay Lighthouse was built in 1852 just 43 years after the Old Beacon was decommissioned. The lighthouse lies at the north of the island at Point of Sinsoss and is Britain’s tallest land-based lighthouse tower at 43 metres (141 ft). The lighthouse is a brick cylindrical tower that is unpainted with two white stripes. The lighthouse visitor centre includes a Read more…

Old Beacon Lighthouse

The Old Beacon is a lighthouse located at Dennis Head, in the northeast of North Ronaldsay in the Orkney Islands. The lighthouse was built in 1789 by Thomas Smith and he was helped by his stepson Robert Stevenson, the lighthouse is an unpainted stone cylindrical tower at a height of 21 metres (69 ft). In 1809 it was decided that the North Ronaldsay Read more…

Start Point Lighthouse

Start Point Lighthouse was built by Robert Stevenson and completed on 2 October 1806. This was the first Scottish lighthouse to have a revolving light and since 1915 has exhibited distinctive black and white vertical stripes which are unique in Scotland. The light was automated in 1962 and is powered by a bank of solar panels. Read more…

Noup Head Lighthouse

Noup Head Lighthouse lies on the north-west headland of Westray, in the Orkney Islands and it was constructed by David A Stevenson in 1898. The lighthouse is a cylindrical white tower with balcony and lantern, at a height of 24 metres (79 ft). Read more…

New Brighton Lighthouse

New Brighton Lighthouse is also known as Perch Rock Lighthouse due to the name of the outcrop. The lighthouse, decommissioned in 1973, sits at the confluence of the River Mersey and Liverpool Bay. A light has been at this location since the late 1600’s but the construction of the lighthouse began in 1827 At low tide, it is possible to walk Read more…

Portishead Point Lighthouse

Portishead Point Lighthouse is also known as Battery Point Lighthouse after Battery Point where it stands. The lighthouse was built in 1930’s and is a black metal pyramid on a concrete base with a height of 9 meters (30 feet). Read more…

Youghal Lighthouse

The first lighthouse was built in 1202 on the cliffs to the west side of the harbour. This beacon was discontinued in about 1542. The current granite lighthouse was designed by George Halpin and construction began in 1848 and it became operational in February 1852. The lantern is 78 feet (24 m) above sea level. Read more…

Hook Lighthouse

Head Lighthouse is located on Hook Head at the tip of the Hook Peninsula in County Wexford, and it marks the eastern entrance to Waterford Harbour. This is thought to be one of the oldest lighthouses in the world with the current structure has stood for almost 800 years. Read more…

Cape Wrath Lighthouse

The lighthouse was built in 1828 under engineer Robert Stevenson and is now listed as buildings of Architectural and Historic Interest. The White Tower is 20 metres high with 81 steps to the top and along with the lamp has a fog horn. Read more…

Tiumpan Head Lighthouse

Tiumpan Head Lighthouse is located on the most easterly point of the Isle of Lewis and the headland juts into the waters between the island and the Scottish mainland. Built in 1900 by the Stevenson brothers, the white-painted lighthouse is 21m in height. The light is now automated and two white flashes are exhibited every 15 seconds and they have Read more…

Smeatons Tower

Smeaton’s Tower is the third and most notable Eddystone Lighthouse built in 1759. It marked a major step forward in the design of lighthouses. The lighthouse was in use until 1877, whern it was dismantled and rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe in the city of Plymouth, where it now stands as a memorial to its designer, John Smeaton, the celebrated civil Read more…

Spurn Head Lighthouse

Now just an empty shell not used since it was closed down in October 1986. Spurn Head has had many lighthouses over the years with the first around 1427. The present abandoned lighthouse was built from 1893 TO 1895. It had the light removed and it was used as a store for explosives and later as a water tower. You Read more…

South Foreland Lighthouse

South Foreland Lighthouse is a distinctive Victorian lighthouse on the White Cliffs of Dover. Site of Marconi’s wireless experiments and Faraday’s first electrically-powered light. Climb the 73 steps for spectacular cross Channel views. Read more…

Souter Lighthouse

The world’s first electric lighthouse (victorian) lighthouse above 2½ miles of beach, cliff and grasslands with spectacular views over Marsden Bay and the notorious currents of ‘Whitburn Steel’. More details: www.nationaltrust.org.uk Read more…

Start Point Lighthouse

Start Point is one of the most exposed peninsulas on the English Coast, running sharply almost a mile into the sea on the South side of Start Bay near Dartmouth. The Lighthouse, sited at the very end of the headland, has guided vessels in passage along the English Channel for over 150 years. Lighthouse has a visitor centre. Read more…

Strumble Head Lighthouse

Strumble Head Lighthouse stands imposingly on Ynysmeicl (St. Michael’s Island), an islet to the west of Fishguard, separated from the mainland by a very narrow gap through which the sea boils and froths in stormy weather. Read more…

Tater Du Lighthouse

Tater Du Lighthouse was built by Trinity House in 1965 as an automatic installation. It marks a headland on the south Cornwall coast to the west of Penzance. A red sector light warns shipping of the Runnelstone Rocks. Read more…

St Tudwals Lighthouse

St Tudwal’s Lighthouse is situated on the small island of St Tudwal, Gwynedd. Read more…

Bamburgh Lighthouse

For over 80 years the small unmanned lighthouse at Bamburgh has given a guide to shipping in passage along the coast as well as to vessels in the waters around the Farne Islands. Bamburgh Lighthouse was built in 1910 and extensively modernized in 1975. The dangers of the North East coast have long since been noted, although no warnings or Read more…

Wolf Rock Lighthouse

Owing its name to the unique howl heard when the wind filled the fissures of the rock, which is four miles south west of Lands End, or possibly too, because of the assumed shape of the rock to a wolf’s head, the station came into Trinity House history with the leasing to a Mr Henry Smith, the right to mark Read more…

Whitby Lighthouse

Whitby Lighthouse protected the busy Whitby harbour. The harbour at Whitby is still the base for the town’s fishing fleet and it was from here that Captain Cook set out in the ENDEAVOUR on his voyage of discovery to Australia in 1768. With high cliffs and fine beaches extend to Ravenscar around Robin Hood’s Bay from Whitby and the area Read more…

Trwyn Du Lighthouse

The island of Anglesey, off the coast of North Wales, must be rounded by coastal shipping making the passage up or down the western seaboard, and as a consequence of its position in a busy seaway has several major lights. Skerries was built first, followed a century later by South Stack and Point Lynas, the latter after the wreck of Read more…

St Catherines Lighthouse

St Catherine’s Lighthouse is situated at Niton Undercliffe, 5 miles from Ventnor on the Isle of Wight and comprises a white octagonal tower with 94 steps up to the lantern. The main light, visible for up to 30 nautical miles in clear weather is the third most powerful light in the Trinity House Service giving a guide to shipping in Read more…

Coquet Lighthouse

Coquet Island is a small low tract of green pastureland lying close inshore off the Northumberland coast. In 1841 Trinity House built a very substantial lighthouse on the south western shore. Read more…

Bishop Rock Lighthouse

Bishop Rock Lighthouse stands on a rock ledge 46m long by 16m wide, 4 miles west of the Scilly Isles. The rocks rise sheer from a depth of 45m and are exposed to the full force of the Atlantic Ocean making this one of the most hazardous and difficult sites for the building of a lighthouse. The rocks around the Read more…

Berry Head Lighthouse

At the end of Berry Head, beyond the coastguard station, is the lighthouse, which forms part of the chain of south coast beacons. The lighthouse, which was built in 1906, was converted to unwatched acetylene operation in 1921 and modernised and converted to mains electricity in 1994. It came to be known as the smallest, highest and deepest light in Read more…

Nash Point Lighthouse

Two circular towers were built each with massive walls and a stone gallery. The eastern, or high lighthouse being 37 metres high and the western or low lighthouse 25 metres high. Placed 302 metres apart they provided leading lights to indicate safe passage past the sandbanks. The high light was painted with black and white stripes and the low light Read more…

North Foreland Lighthouse

A light was first exhibited at North Foreland, Broadstairs in 1499, but the first real lighthouse was built by Sir John Meldrum in 1636. The lighthouse consisted of a two storey octagonal tower made of timber, lath and plaster with an iron coal burning grate on top. This tower was destroyed by fire in 1683. A temporary measure of a Read more…

Orfordness Lighthouse

Orfordness Lighthouse, in Suffolk, is situated at the end of a 13 mile spit which runs parallel to the coast. The dangers of this area (swift tides, banks and shoals) although not immediately apparent have long been notorious. On one night alone, in 1627, thirty-two ships were cast up on Orfordness with scarcely a survivor amongst their crews. Read more…

Sark Lighthouse

Sark is the smallest of the Channel Islands, and, despite being Crown Property, is ruled by a Seigneur (feudal lord of manor). It is a mere 3 miles long and 2 miles wide, the north and south parts being almost separate islands joined only by a narrow strip of land. The white, octagonal tower of the lighthouse rises from the Read more…

Farne Lighthouse

Off the coast of Northumberland lies a little archipelago of islands which takes it name from Farne, the largest and nearest to the land. These islands, situated in the main deep water coastal shipping lanes, make navigation in the area hazardous. Read more…

Skerries Lighthouse

The rocks upon which the Skerries Lighthouse stands are at the end of a low tract of submerged land North-East of Holyhead which lies directly in the path of many of the major shipping lines from Liverpool and Ireland. The lighthouse gives a guide to passing shipping and a warning of the dangerous rocks. Read more…

Royal Sovereign Lighthouse

This lighthouse was completed in 1971 and replaced a light vessel which had marked the Royal Sovereign Shoal since 1875. It is of concrete construction and was built in two sections on the beach at Newhaven. The base and vertical pillar section were floated into position and sunk on to a leveled area of the sea bed and the upper Read more…

Round Island Lighthouse

Round Island, the most northerly outpost of the Scillies is a 40m mass of granite, the top forming a platform on which Trinity House built a lighthouse and dwellings in 1887 under conditions of extreme difficulty. The sheer rock face made the unloading of building materials almost impossible. Today the only access, apart from by helicopter, is by a flight Read more…

Point Lynas Lighthouse

Point Lynas Lighthouse is situated on the north coast of Anglesey in North Wales. As early as 1766 the need was felt for a station on Anglesey where ships making for Liverpool could pick up pilots. The Liverpool Pilotage Service, after examining several sites, eventually chose Point Lynas. Point Lynas lighthouse has an automatic fog detector which starts the fog Read more…

Penninis Lighthouse

Peninnis Lighthouse on St Mary’s Island in the Scilly Isles is a small automatic lighthouse consisting of a metal tower, the upper part painted white and the lower part and cupola painted black. This lighthouse was established in 1911 when it superseded the lighthouse on St Agnes which had been in operation since 1680. Read more…

Pendeen Lighthouse

For nearly 100 years Pendeen Lighthouse has been guiding passing vessels and warning of the dangerous waters around Pendeen Watch. From Cape Cornwall the coast runs NE by E towards the Wra, or Three Stone Oar, off Pendeen. From here the inhospitable shore continues for a further eight miles or so to the Western entrance of St. Ives Bay, the Read more…

Monkstone Lighthouse

Monkstone Lighthouse is located in the Bristol Channel, near Lavernock Point, Glamorgan. It was established in 1839 and remained largely unaltered until its conversion to solar powered operation in 1993. The lighthouse consists of a masonry tower strengthened by vertical and horizontal wrought iron bands surmounted by a prefabricated red GRP tower which replaced the original iron structure in 1993. Read more…

Nab Tower Lighthouse

Nab Tower Lighthouse is responsible for guiding ships of all sizes and nationalities into the deep water channel for Portsmouth and Southampton. The story of its strange origin goes back half a century. In the early part of 1918 attacks by German U-boats on our merchant fleet caused the Admiralty so much anxiety that it was decided to take strong Read more…

St. Anthonys Lighthouse

Saint Anthony’s Lighthouse is situated at the eastern entrance to Falmouth Harbour thus guiding vessels clear of the Manacles rocks, south of the harbour entrance. Read more…

Dungeness Lighthouse

Dungeness lies at the southernmost point of Kent and is an enormous flat of sand and shingle which has been a hazard to shipping for hundreds of years. Dungeness Lighthouse marks the end of the peninsula and is also an important way mark and reference for vessels navigating the Dover Straits. Read more…

Eddystone Lighthouse

The most famous lighthouse in the British Isles is probably the Eddystone, built on a small and very dangerous rock 13 miles south west of Plymouth. There have been four separate lighthouses built here. The original tower, completed in 1698, was the first lighthouse to be built on a small rock in the open sea. The history is as follows: Read more…

St Anns Head Lighthouse

Milford Haven has long been recognised by merchants and shipowners as one of Britain’s finest deep water harbours – it was from here that Henry II led his army into Ireland in 1172. Now large fleets of trawlers and oil tankers gather in the anchorage. At the approach to this famous port lie dangerous reefs just below the surface, almost Read more…

Southwold Lighthouse

Southwold Lighthouse is a coastal mark for passing shipping and guides vessels into Southwold Harbour. The lighthouse is situated near the centre of the seaside resort of Southwold, midway between Lowestoft and Orford, the round white tower stands amongst rows of small houses. Lighthouse has a visitor centre. Read more…

South Stack Lighthouse

Situated near the north west tip of Wales, the tiny islet known as South Stack Rock lies separated from Holyhead Island by 30 metres of turbulent sea, surging to and fro in continuous motion. The coastline from the breakwater and around the south western shore is made of large granite cliffs rising sheer from the sea to 60 metres. Lighthouse Read more…

South Bishop Lighthouse

South Bishop Lighthouse (also known as Emsger) is situated on a outcrop of rock in St George’s Channel 4¾ miles south west of St David’s Head, Pembrokeshire. The lighthouse was built in 1839 and acts primarily as a waymark for vessels navigating offshore and secondly to assist vessels navigating around the Bishops and Clerks. Read more…

Smalls Lighthouse

For over 200 years the Smalls Lighthouse has been acting as a guide and hazard warning to passing ships. John Phillips, a Welshman, first conceived the idea of setting a lighthouse on the Smalls, one of two tiny clusters of rocks lying close together in the Irish Sea, 21 miles off St. David’s Head in Wales, the highest peak of Read more…

Skokholm Lighthouse

The small island of Skokholm, just 1¼ miles long by ½ mile wide, lies just off the Pembrokeshire coast, and the lighthouse is situated on the South West point of the island. The island has high cliffs rising sheer from the sea to well over 30 metres in many places, and a great variety of bird life is to be Read more…

Casquets Lighthouse

About 1722, the owners of ships passing certain dangerous “Rocks called the Casketts” off Alderney in the Channel Islands, applied to Thomas Le Cocq, the proprietor of the Rocks, to build a lighthouse and offered him ½d. per ton when vessels passed the light. Le Cocq approached Trinity House and a patent was obtained on 3rd June, 1723. Trinity House Read more…

Cromer Lighthouse

Before the erection of a lighthouse at Cromer lights for the guidance of vessels were shown from the tower of the parish church, these were small, but served a useful purpose for many years. A number of ecclesiastical lights such as this were exhibited around the coast in medieval times. During the first twenty years following Charles II’s restoration in Read more…

Crow Point Lighthouse

Crow Point Lighthouse gives a guide to vessels navigating the Taw and Torridge estuary in North Devon. It is a small tubular steel structure with the light just 7.6 metres above Mean High Water. Originally powered by acetylene gas Crow Point was converted to solar power in 1987. specified rates of dues to to be paid (voluntarily) by the owners Read more…

Alderney lighthouse

Alderney Lighthouse was built in 1912 in order to act as a guide to passing shipping and to warn vessels of the treacherous waters around the Isle. It is sited on Quénard Point, to the north-east of the Island. The Alderney Race, a notorious strait of water between Alderney and Cap de la Hague in France includes the strongest tidal Read more…

Bardsey Lighthouse

Bardsey Lighthouse stands on the southerly tip of the island and gives a guide to vessels in passage through St George’s Channel and the Irish Sea. The lighthouse tower is unusual in being square in plan. It is striped in red and white horizontal bands. The building was erected by Trinity House in 1821 at a cost of £5,470 12s Read more…

Blacknore Point Lighthouse

Blacknore Point lighthouse was built by Trinity House to assist shipping moving into and out to the docks at Avonmouth. Blacknore Point Lighthouse was built by Trinity House to assist shipping moving into and out to the docks at Avonmouth on the river Severn north-west of Bristol. The Lighthouse was built in 1894 and converted to automatic electric operation in Read more…

Bull Point Lighthouse

Bull Point lighthouse gives a guide to vessels navigating off the North Devon coast with a red sector light marking the Rockham Shoal and the Morte Stone. Bull Point Lighthouse gives a guide to vessels navigating off the North Devon Coast with a red sector light marking the Rockham Shoal and the Morte Stone off Morte Point. The light was Read more…

Caldey Island Lighthouse

Caldey Island lies about 3 miles off the south coast of Pembrokeshire facing the town and harbour of Tenby. it is 1½ miles long and less that ¾ mile wide. In 1131 the island was donated to the Benedictine monks from the Abbey of Tiron in France. In 1536 the monks were expelled from the island and it was not Read more…

Guile Point East Lighthouse

Guile Point East lighthouse is a stone obelisk with the light fixed about a third of the way up the structure. Read more…

Flatholm Lighthouse

The Island of Flatholm lies centrally in the busy shipping lanes where the Bristol Channel meets the Severn estuary. The need for a lighthouse on the island had been discussed for many years by leading shipmasters and by members of the Society of Merchant Venturers of Bristol when, in 1733, John Elbridge, a senior member of the Society, forwarded a Read more…

Les Hanois Lighthouse

The Hanois Lighthouse rises from a reef on the south west side of the Island of Guernsey, and takes its name from the group of rocks – Les Hanois. Read more…

Longships Lighthouse

Longships lighthouse is situated on on Carn Bras, the highest islet in the Longships group, at the tip of Cornwall and guides vessels through the extreme storms around the cliffs of Lands End. The original tower was built in 1795 but very high seas obscured its light and the present granite tower was built between 1869 and1873 to replace it. Read more…

Lizard Lighthouse

Lizard Lighthouse is a landfall and coastal mark giving a guide to vessels in passage along the English Channel and warning of the hazardous waters off Lizard Point. Many stories are told of the activities of wreckers around our coasts, most of which are grossly exaggerated, but small communities occasionally and sometimes officially benefited from the spoils of shipwrecks, and Read more…

Hurst Point Lighthouse

Hurst Point Lighthouse guides vessels through the hazardous western approaches to the Solent, indicating the line of approach through the Needles Channel. Although it is said that a light was shown on Hurst Point as early as 1733, the first Trinity House record relates to a meeting of shipmasters and merchants in 1781 to approve the terms of a formal Read more…

Hilbre Island Lighthouse

Hilbre Island Lighthouse provides a port land mark for the Hilbre swash in the River Dee estuary. This small automatic lighthouse came under the full jurisdiction of Trinity House in 1973, before this it was operated by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board Authority. Read more…

Heugh Hill Lighthouse

Heugh Hill Lighthouse along with Guile Point Lighthouse gives a lead for vessels entering Holy Island Harbour. Trinity House assumed responsibility for marking the approach to the harbour on 1 November 1995. Heugh Hill Lighthouse is a framework tower surmounted by a red triangular daymark. Read more…

Hartland Point Lighthouse

Hartland Point Lighthouse gives a guide to vessels of all types approaching the Bristol Channel, the lighthouse was built by Trinity House in 1874 under the direction of Sir James Douglass. Hartland Point lighthouse, built on a large rock at the tip of the point, was threatened by the undermining action of the sea to such an extent that rock Read more…

Lundy South Lighthouse

The Lundy South Lighthouse is a compact station with a white circular tower, automated and converted to solar power in 1994. At the mouth of the Bristol Channel lies the Island of Lundy. It is a rugged mass of dark granite, surrounded by reefs of sharp rocks that make an approach to the island difficult to the unknowing sailor. Measuring Read more…

We need to be cautious when visiting as the current lighthouses still in operation are private property owned and operated by the Corporation of Trinity House and form part of a larger network of nearly 600 visual, audible, electronic, fixed and floating aids to navigation.

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