Dennis Head Old Beacon

P4

The Dennis Head Beacon, German Dennis -Head Beacon, is a 21 m high lighthouse on the Scottish Orkney island of North Ronaldsay, the northernmost of the larger Orkney islands. In the Scottish monument lists the lighthouse in the highest category A listed.

History

After the lighthouses on the Mull of Kintyre and Kinnaird Head was the beacon to Dennis Head Lighthouse, the third in Scotland and the first in the Orkney Islands. As a designer Thomas Smith was responsible for the planning. During the construction of Dennis Head beacons was Smith's stepson Robert Stevenson, the founder of the later famous lighthouse peasant family, for the first time participated in the construction of a lighthouse. As the site of the easternmost point of the headland Dennis Head was chosen. John White ' and James Sinclair led by the construction of the tower and outbuildings. Due to the sluggish material and labor supply from Leith, completion was delayed until the autumn of 1789. The cost was around 200 pounds. Like the Eilean Glass Lighthouse Dennis the Head beacon was lit for the first time on 10 October 1789.

After 1806 Start Point Lighthouse was taken on Sanday in operation, the lighthouse at Dennis Head appeared superfluous and he is in 1809, made ​​twenty years after commissioning, out of service. Increasingly frequent shipwrecks in the catchment area of ​​the former lighthouse, showed the need for a lighthouse on North Ronaldsay. The North Ronaldsay Lighthouse, a new lighthouse was built a 1852 kilometers northwest of Dennis Head Beacons.