Lizard Lighthouse

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The Lizard Lighthouse is a lighthouse in Cornwall in England, at Lizard Point on a steep coast on the Atlantic Ocean. The lighthouse guides the ships to the The Lizard Peninsula and warns them of the dangerous coastal waters. He is also a landmark for ships wishing to come into or go out of the English Channel. It is operated and maintained by the Trinity House Lighthouse Service, the official English authority which is entrusted with the maintenance of lighthouses and other aids to navigation. It is comparable to the Waterways and Shipping Office in Germany.

History

The first tower was erected at this point due to the private initiative of Sir John Killigrew in 1619. The ships The Lizard passed should pay for the provision of the tower and so secure its financing. The first building had only one tower be generated light with open fire. But the concept did not work out because the ship owners did not want to make the delivery and as the lights went out a short time later. Following the output of Trinity House patent was withdrawn and the first tower was destroyed, as Killigrew could not pay for the maintenance of private funds.

The current tower was completed in 1752 to designs by Thomas Fonnereau. The new building consists of two octagonal towers, a building between them and another upstream building, now occupied by two large fog horns. In 1771 Trinity House took over the management in 1903, the tower was electrified, while the western tower was decommissioned and the two permanently glowing lights were replaced with a flashing light. In 1998 the plant was automated.

Visitor center

At the lighthouse there is a visitor center opened in 2009 in which some old machinery and the history of the lighthouse are shown, including the compressors, which had supplied the fog horns with compressed air. The entrance fee is currently six pounds. You can reach the tower on a road about 1.6 kilometers away from the Lizard Village and on the South West Coast Path, which runs along the cliff in front of the tower.

Gallery

Fog horns on the middle part of the building

East tower with lantern