Longships Lighthouse
Location | Longships, Land's End Cornwall England |
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Coordinates | 50°4′00.69″N 5°44′48.39″W / 50.0668583°N 5.7467750°W |
Tower | |
Constructed | 1795 (first) |
Construction | granite tower |
Automated | 1988 |
Height | 35 m (115 ft) |
Shape | tapered cylindrical tower with lantern and helipad on the top |
Markings | unpainted tower, white lantern |
Operator | Trinity House[1] |
Fog signal | one second blast every 10 seconds |
Light | |
First lit | 1875 (current) |
Focal height | 35 m (115 ft) |
Lens | First Order Dioptric |
Intensity | 14,400 Candela |
Range | 15 nmi (28 km; 17 mi) |
Characteristic | Fl (2) WR 10s. |
Longships Lighthouse is an active 19th-century lighthouse about 1.25 mi (2.0 km) off the coast of Land's End in Cornwall, England. It is the second lighthouse to be built on Carn Bras, the highest of the Longships islets which rises 39 feet (12 m) above high water level. In 1988 the lighthouse was automated, and the keepers withdrawn. It is now remotely monitored from the Trinity House Operations & Planning Centre in Harwich, Essex.[2]
History
In the second half of the 18th century,
The first lighthouse
Smith's lighthouse was first lit on 29 September 1795. Built to Wyatt's design, it was a round tower, three storeys high and built of
In 1836, Trinity House bought out the lease of the Longships (and other remaining privately-owned lighthouses). The Corporation built a set of keepers' dwellings onshore, near Sennen Cove facing the lighthouse out to sea, in 1855; keepers' families lived there, as did the keepers themselves when not on station.[4]
The current lighthouse
In 1869 Trinity House began constructing a replacement tower to the designs of
The tower was first lit in December 1873, having cost £43,870 to build,
In 1883 Longstone was altered to show an
In 1904 the multi-wick lamp was replaced with a
In 1967 the light was electrified and the tower modified: the 1873 optic was removed and in its place a pair of
In 1974 a helipad was constructed on top of the lantern, greatly easing access.[5]
In 1988 the lighthouse was automated:[8] the keepers were withdrawn, a new set of generators was installed and the fog horn was replaced by a new electric emitter.[18] It was initially monitored by a telemetry link from the Lizard Lighthouse; since 1996 it has been monitored from Harwich.[4]
Operation
The light was converted to solar power in 2005;[19] it now flashes twice every ten seconds.[2] Seaward flashes are white but they become red – due to tinted sectors – for any vessel straying too close to either Cape Cornwall to the north or Gwennap Head to the south-southeast. The white light has a range of 15
Gallery
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Longships lighthouse from the landward side.
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The lighthouse on a windy day in 1938.
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As of 2021 solar panels surround the lower half of the lantern.
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View of the lighthouse from Land's End.
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Aerial view of the rocks.
See also
References
- ^ Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of Southwest England (Devon and Cornwall)". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
- ^ a b "Longships Lighthouse". Lighthouses and lightvessels. Trinity House. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
- ^ Robinson, John Martin (1974). Samuel Wyatt, architect. Oxford University Research Archive (Thesis). Retrieved 15 February 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g Boyle, Martin (1997). Lighthouses of England and Wales: Longships. Southampton, Hants.: B & T Publications.
- ^ a b Woodman, Richard; Wilson, Jane (2002). The Lighthouses of Trinity House. Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts.: Thomas Reed. pp. 96–97.
- ^ Nancollas, Tom (2018). Seashaken Houses: A Lighthouse History from Eddystone to Fastnet. Particular Books. p. 111.
- ^ Trinity House website; Longships lighthouse Archived 17 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved April 2010
- ^ a b c d e Nicholson, Christopher (1983). Rock lighthouses of Britain (1995 ed.). Caithness, Scotland: Whittles Publishing. p. 74.
- ^ ISBN 1-870325-41-9.
- ^ Elliot, George H. (1875). European Light-House Systems. London: Lockwood & co. p. 184. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
- ^ Elliot, George H. (1875). European Light-House Systems. London: Lockwood & co. pp. 146–148. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
- ^ The English Channel Pilot. London: Charles Wilson. 1878. p. 92. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
- ^ London Gazette, Issue: 25226, Page: 2315, 1 May 1883
- ^ London Gazette, Issue: 26901, Page: 5734, 19 October 1897
- ^ "Driven To Smoking Tea-Leaves". The Cornubian and Redruth Times. No. 1962. 25 January 1901. p. 3.
- ^ London Gazette, Issue: 27040, Page: 93, 6 January 1899
- ^ Besley, Andrew. "Principal keeper of Longships Lighthouse, off Lands End, Cornwall, in the operations room, checking the lighting equipment". agefotostock. Archived from the original on 15 August 2023.
- ^ Renton, Alan (2001). Lost Sounds: The Story of Coast Fog Signals. Caithness, Scotland: Whittles.
- ^ "Lighthouse Power". BBC Inside Out - South West. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
- List of Lights. United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. 2016. p. 1.