September 27, 1979
A lighthouse built in the Ve Skerries region of Scotland first went into service. The Ve Skerries are a group of low skerries (small, rocky islands) located along the southwest perimeter of St Magnus Bay and northwest of Papa Stour. Papa Stour is one of the largest islands of Shetland (also known as the Shetland Islands), a subarctic archipelago of Scotland that is the northernmost section of the United Kingdom. The Ve Skerries Lighthouse is specifically located on the west side of the skerry named Ormal.
The Ve Skerries Lighthouse replaced a lighted buoy that been installed there on Ormal. This lighthouse was built in large part to help with increased maritime traffic in the area that had been brought about by the construction of a major oil terminal at the Shetland-based inlet of Sullom Voe.
R.J. MacKay was the engineer in charge of building the Ve Skerries Lighthouse. Despite the remote location of Ormal, the construction of the lighthouse took only four months to complete. This was because of the extensive use of helicopters to transport personnel and materials to that site. To help ensure that the Ve Skerries Lighthouse could withstand the powerful seas and winds in that part of the world, this 48-foot (14.6-meter)-tall concrete tower was anchored with a total of 18 steel bars driven anywhere from 10 to 16 (3 to 4.9 meters) into that skerry’s rocky soil
Photo Credit: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5e73aba6d3bf7f467a27a17b/2020-08-Coelleira.pdf (licensed under the United Kingdom Open Government Licence at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/)
Additional information on the Ve Skerries Lighthouse is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ve_Skerries#Ve_Skerries_Lighthouse
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