|
The
Lighthouse
Open
Weekends April - September
10.00am - 3.30pm
Adults £2, Under 16 £1.00
Perched
high on top of the cliffs is the Mull of Galloway Lighthouse.
The lighthouse,
with its 26 metre high tower, was built in 1828, at a cost
of between £8,000 and £9,000, and came into use
in 1830. Owned and maintained by the Northern Lighthouse Board,
it at first showed "intermittent" or "occulting"
lights, where two opaque cylindrical shades were moved up
or down so as to meet and obscure the light at fixed intervals,
with periods of darkness longer than those of light.
 At
one time the lamp was a combination of shining brass and sparkling
crystal, turning through its two and three quarter minute
revolution on beautifully made rollers - so perfect that the
5 tons of lens could be moved by hand. The lamp was as simple
as the familiar tilly-lamp, lit by hand with paraffin and
then pumped up, for all the world like a camp-cooking stove.
But there the resemblance ended for the surrounding prisms,
which gave off myriad rainbows on a sunny day, caught the
light and magnified it to the power of 29,000 candles.
The paraffin
for the lamps, as well as other requirements of the lighthouse
keepers and their families, came via ships and were deposited
at East Tarbet where they were stored in a stone building
which can still be seen. These ships were also used to move
lighthouse keepers around the coastline from post to post.
.jpg) From
the 1870's the children from the lighthouse cottages would
have been able to attend school at the Mull Village, after
a two and a half mile walk.
In the
early 1900's a foghorn, with it Kelvin diesel engine, was
introduced as an extra warning to sailors to avoid the Mull's
rocky coastline and was in use until the 1980's when radar
became a more effective and efficient method of warning.
In 1971
the Mull of Galloway Lighthouse was converted to electricity
with a sealed-beam light, mounted on a gearless revolving
pedestal. New technology meant that the cleaning of the lighthouse
became much easier, with no lenses to polish and no machinery
to oil.
The Mull
of Galloway Lighthouse was de-manned in 1988 and is now remotely
monitored from the Northern Lighthouse Board's Headquarters
in Edinburgh. The lighthouse is open to the public at weekends
from April to September. The cottages, once the homes of lighthouse
keepers and their families, have now become holiday cottages
and sadly, the walled garden is no longer maintained.
RSPB
Nature Reserve
Lighthouse
Visitor
Centre
Gallie
Craig Coffee House
Nature
of the Mull of Galloway
Geology
of the Mull of Galloway
.^
back to Mull of Galloway Experience
|
