Location | County Antrim, Northern Ireland |
---|---|
Coordinates | 54°46′01″N5°41′21″W / 54.76694°N 5.68917°W Coordinates: 54°46′01″N5°41′21″W / 54.76694°N 5.68917°W |
Tower | |
Constructed | 1902 |
Automated | 1975 |
Height | 16 metres (52 ft) |
Shape | octagonal |
Operator | Commissioners of Irish Lights |
Fog signal | discontinued in 1972 |
Light | |
First lit | 1902 |
Focal height | 45 metres (148 ft) |
Lens | 920mm catadioptric annular |
Light source | MBI 400W lamps in a UVLA lampchanger |
Range | 27 nautical miles (50 km; 31 mi) |
Characteristic | Fl W 3s. |
Listed Building – Grade B+ | |
Designated | 22 June 2010 |
Reference no. | HB22/05/005 A |
Blackhead Lighthouse is a listed lighthouse built at the turn of the 20th century, near Whitehead in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It marks the very northern end of Belfast Lough where it opens out into the North Channel that separates Northern Ireland and Scotland. [1] [2] The active lighthouse is managed by the Commissioners of Irish Lights, where it is named as the Blackhead Antrim Lighthouse to distinguish it from the more modern Blackhead lighthouse in County Clare. [1] [2]
The first application for a lighthouse at Black Head was made by the Belfast Harbour Board in 1893. It was refused by the Commissioners of Irish Lights on the basis that the light would only benefit shipping entering Belfast and should not be financed by the general Mercantile Marine Fund. A second request was made in early 1898, this time supported by Lloyd's and the Belfast Chamber of Commerce as well as the Harbour Board, it was also refused. Further representations were made that year, including discussions in the House of Commons, until the Board of Trade and Trinity House agreed to make available funding to cover the estimated cost of £10,025 (equivalent to £1,188,054 as of 2021) [3] for the construction of a lighthouse and fog signal. [4] [5]
The contract to construct the light was awarded to William Campbell and Sons in 1899 with work starting the same year. Designed by William Douglass engineer-in-chief to the CIL, the lighthouse was completed in 1902. Situated at the top of a steep cliff to guide ships into Belfast Lough and the port of Belfast, it complements the Mew Island Lighthouse on the southern side of the lough entrance, which was also designed by Douglass. [4] [5] [6]
The lighthouse consists of an octagonal stone tower 16 metres (52 ft) high, with lantern and gallery painted white. The main two-storey keeper's house is built close by and linked to the tower by an enclosed walkway. There is also an adjacent detached superintendent's house. The lighthouse was electrified in 1965 and became automatic in 1975. The fog signal was suppressed in 1972. [1]
With a focal height of 45 metres (148 ft) above the sea, the light from the first order Fresnel lens with its 400W bulb can be seen for 27 nautical miles, with a characteristic of a single white flash every 3 seconds. [1]
Blackhead is one of the dozen lighthouses that make up the "Great Lighthouses of Ireland", a tourism initiative designed to promote the use of certain lighthouses for holiday accommodation. The keeper's houses at the lighthouse were refurbished by the Irish Landmark Trust, and are now offered as holiday accommodation. They retain the original whistle pipes that were used to call the off-duty keeper's to their watch duties. [1] [5]
The lighthouse is accessible by a narrow private road (only accessible by foot for the general public) about 4 km north-east of Whitehead, and also by foot along the Blackhead Path from the town. This walkway was developed by Berkeley Deane Wise, to help attract tourists to the town, and loops around the headland requiring bridges and two tunnels. It was the precursor to the more dramatic Gobbins path, a few miles further north along the coast. [4] [7]
The entire lighthouse complex including the tower and keeper's houses is protected as a category B+ listed building. [8]
Larne Lough, historically Lough Larne, is a sea loch or inlet in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It lies between the Islandmagee peninsula and the mainland. At its mouth is the town of Larne. It is designated as an area of special scientific interest, a special protection area, and a Ramsar site to protect the wetland environment, particularly due to the presence of certain bird species and shellfish.
Whitehead is a small seaside village on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, lying almost midway between the towns of Carrickfergus and Larne. It lies within the civil parish of Templecorran, the historic barony of Belfast Lower, and is part of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council. Before the Plantation of Ulster its name was recorded as both Whitehead and Kinbaine.
Belfast Lough is a large, intertidal sea inlet on the east coast of Northern Ireland. At its head is the city and port of Belfast, which sits at the mouth of the River Lagan. The lough opens into the North Channel and connects Belfast to the Irish Sea.
The Chaine Memorial Tower in Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, is a memorial to James Chaine, a former Member of Parliament for Antrim, who died in 1885. It is a cylindrical stone tower lighthouse with a conical roof, situated on the west side of entrance to Larne Lough.
St Anthony's Lighthouse is the lighthouse at St Anthony Head, on the eastern side of the entrance to Falmouth harbour, Cornwall, UK. The harbour is also known as Carrick Roads and is one of the largest natural harbours in the world.
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Start Point lighthouse was built in 1836 to protect shipping off Start Point, Devon, England. Open to the public in summer months, it is owned and operated by Trinity House. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II listed building.
Berkeley Deane Wise was an Irish civil engineer who made a significant impact on the development of railways and tourism, particularly in Northern Ireland.
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The Maidens lighthouses, on the Maidens in North Channel off County Antrim in Northern Ireland, date from 1829 and were built at the request of merchants and a Royal Navy officer. Lighthouses were built on both rocks; the West Maiden was abandoned in 1903 and the East Maiden was automated in 1977.
Lowestoft Lighthouse is a lighthouse operated by Trinity House located to the north of the centre of Lowestoft in the English county of Suffolk. It stands on the North Sea coast close to Ness Point, the most easterly point in the United Kingdom. It acts as a warning light for shipping passing along the east coast and is the most easterly lighthouse in the UK.
The Haulbowline Lighthouse is an active 19th century lighthouse. Described as an "elegant, tapering stone tower" it is located at the entrance to Carlingford Lough, near Cranfield Point in County Down, Northern Ireland. The lighthouse was built on the eastern part of the Haulbowline rocks, one of a number of navigation hazards at the seaward end of Carlingford Lough, which include a notable rocky shoal or bar across the mouth of the lough. The multi-purpose light was designed to help mark the rocks and, when first built, the depth of water over the bar, as well as acting as a landfall light for ships entering from the Irish Sea. Associated with the lighthouse are the leading lights at Green Island and Vidal Bank which mark the safe channel along Carlingford Lough, with Haulbowline displaying a reserve light in case of problems with these leading lights.
The Cantick Head Lighthouse is an active 19th century lighthouse on the Scottish island of South Walls in the Orkney Islands. It is located at the end of Cantick Head, a long peninsula on the south-eastern coast of South Walls that overlooks the Pentland Firth and the Sound of Hoxa, which forms the southern entry to the natural harbour of Scapa Flow.
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William Douglass was for twenty-six years an engineer for Trinity House and engineer-in-chief to the Commissioners of Irish Lights from 1878 to 1900. He built a number of offshore lighthouses and was responsible for the design of the second Fastnet Rock lighthouse.
Straw Island Lighthouse is an active aid to navigation on an islet of the same name in Killeany Bay, northeast of Inishmore in County Galway, Ireland. Completed in 1878, it was the last of four lighthouses built in the 19th century on the Aran Islands. The commissioning of Straw Island marked the culmination of a lengthy 24 year campaign by the local islanders to have a lighthouse for safe passage into Killeany Bay and the harbour at Kilronan.
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