Tarbat Ness Lighthouse

P4

The Tarbat Ness Lighthouse is the third tallest lighthouse in Scotland. He stands on the eastern, North Sea -facing coast.

Location

The lighthouse stands on the Tarbat Ness called the northern headland of the Tarbat peninsula, which the eastern Moray Firth separates the westerly Dornoch Firth. Politically part of the area for Community Council Area of Tarbat, which belongs to the Highland Unitary Authority. The surface of the peninsula consists of Old Red Sandstone. As the east coast of the peninsula traces the course of the Great Glen Fault are occasionally minor earthquakes.

History

The main reason for the construction of the lighthouse was a storm in November 1826 in which a total of 26 boats sank in the Moray Firth. Therefore, there have been calls in the subsequent period to provide the access from the North Sea to the Moray Firth on both sides, each with a lighthouse. Trinity House and the Caledonian Canal Commission as the competent authorities at the time held a lighthouse on the east side at Lossiemouth initially superfluous, the local tower to the Covesea Skerries was therefore begun in 1845 and be completed in the following year.

On the west side it was insightful: The engineer known by the construction of several other lighthouses become Robert Stevenson once awarded the contract to design, construction work led by a company of Inverness. On January 26, 1830, the lighthouse went on Tarbat Ness in operation.

The tower is operated like all lighthouses in Scotland, from the Northern Lighthouse Board. Since 25 March 1971, he is, together with the former home of the lighthouse keeper and the enclosure surrounding the installation, as Listed Building Category A listed building.

Technical

With a height of 53 meters, it is, according to Skerryvore and North Ronaldsay, the third tallest lighthouse in Scotland. Up to the top, there are 203 steps. 1892 the tower was thoroughly restored and received on this occasion developed by David Alan Stevenson, the grandson of the designer, improved optical system with a Fresnel lens. 1907, the original, petroleum -fueled and equipped with four burner Argand lamp was replaced by a gas bulb with a 55 -millimeter-long mantle. 1915, the tower was painted white and got the two red stripes. In 1985, he was automated and electrified, the residential building before being sold. The optical system from 1892 is now in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

Roman foundations

Occasionally we read, the tower stood on a Roman foundation. However, this refers to a somewhat northerly point called Carn a ' Bhodaich at which a few stone remnants of a house there, which a corresponding origin were awarded in this but it is likely to have acted more like a small beacon or cairn originally expected. Its antiquity is unclear, but it is in no way attributable to the Romans.

Has its origin in this assessment The new statistical account of Scotland, a very detailed topographic standard work from the mid-19th century. There, it is reported that there is in the vicinity of the lighthouse foundation remains of which is told, they will be of Roman origin. Until then only report with a reference to architectural remnants of the Romans in this area in turn came from a pastor and the historians named John Grant. This was the first time in 1798 published an article in which he speculated two Cairns and the remains of some earthworks, which he had discovered at Port A Chaistel, about three kilometers southwest of Tarbat Ness would look as if they were the remains of a Roman camp and a praetorium. This observation but no one could confirm in the subsequent period, attempts to rediscover this camp were unsuccessful. On older topographic maps these assignments were still registered on suspicion. To date, however, lacks any evidence of Roman activity on the peninsula.