February 24, 1862
A lighthouse built on the coast of southeastern Scotland first went into service. This navigational aid is located on the cliffs at a rocky promontory that has long been known as St. Abbs Head. St. Abbs Head Lighthouse was designed and constructed by the brothers David Stevenson (1815-1886) and Thomas Stevenson (1818-1887). Both of them were civil engineers working at the time for the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB), the general lighthouse authority for Scotland and the Isle of Man.
The origins of St. Abbs Head Lighthouse can be traced to November 28, 1857, when the steamship Martello ran aground on Carr Rock (a sandstone reef) in that region. The Dundee Courier recounted a few days later, “The morning was misty, and the vessel was on her way from Granton to Inverness, with a number of passengers on board.” While nobody was killed or seriously injured in this shipwreck, there was an ensuing call from NLB and others for additional lighting to help better guide vessels traveling through the area.
“The lighthouse, which has been erected on St. Abbs Head will, on and after the night of the 24th February, exhibit a flashing light of the natural colour every ten seconds,” reported the Aberdeen Journal reported five days before the start of operations for that needed source of illumination, The newspaper also noted, “This is an improvement which our seamen who have to pass that dangerous promontory cannot fail to appreciate.”
In their formal notice to mariners about the imminent inauguration of St. Abbs Head Lighthouse, the NLB commissioners went into great detail about the navigational aid itself. This notice announced, “The Light will be elevated about 224 feet [68.3 meters] above high water Spring Tides, and allowing 10 feet [3.1 meters] for the height of the eye, will be seen, where the coast line permits, about 20 Nautic Miles [37 kilometers] in clear weather, and at lesser distances according to the state of the atmosphere.” The notice further stated, “The Lighthouse Tower is 28½ feet [8.7 meter] in height from the ground to the top of the Lantern, and both it and Dwelling-houses are painted white.”
St. Abbs Head Lighthouse, which was automated in 1993, is no longer in service. It is now maintained by the National Trust for Scotland.
Photo Credit: Lisa Jarvis (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en)
For more information on St. Abbs Head Lighthouse, please check out https://www.nlb.org.uk/lighthouses/st-abbs-head/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Abb%27s_Head_Lighthouse
Additional information on lighthouses in Scotland is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lighthouses_in_Scotland
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