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 which projects only 3.5 metres above the highest tides.
Although the lighthouse was described in 1801 as a “raft of timber rudely put together” it survived for 80 years. Whiteside’s design of raising a super-structure on piles so that the sea could pass through them with “but little obstruction” has been adopted since for hundreds of sea structures.
The present lighthouse was built under the supervision of Trinity House Chief Engineer, James Douglass. Its design was based on Smeatonโs Eddystone tower and it took just two years to build being completed in 1861.
Map, Directions & Contact Info
Smalls Lighthouse, Smalls, Smalls, Pembrokeshire , United Kingdom
Get directions to Smalls Lighthouse
If you want more information on the area visit our local
Smalls Destination page or our regional
Pembrokeshire Destination page. Make this page your own. Sign in to save places, add private notes, and plan future coastal trips.
Loading weather forecast...
Nearby Places to Stay
At Coast Radar, we try and keep our details up to date, but unfortunately, we sometimes don't keep up. If you see a problem with this entry or think we have missed something, please use the report button below to let us know of the problem.
