Sule Skerry Lighthouse

Heritage listing

Category A Date Added 08/12/1971 Supplementary Information Updated 05/05/1999 Local Authority Orkney Islands Planning Authority Orkney Islands Parish Stromness NGR HX 62191 24420 Coordinates 262191, 1024420 — D A Stevenson, completed 1893, lighted 1895. 5-stage on plinth, circular-plan lighthouse tower, with outsize lantern (see Notes). Painted brick. Stone flight to canted plinth with window to each flank; door at 1st stage; small-pane window to 2nd, 3rd and 4th stages; cantilevered walkway with cast-iron railings between 4th stage and lantern; evenly disposed portholes around tower below lantern; large, glazed lantern with domed roof and short weather vane. INTERIOR: not seen, 1997. — Britain's most remote lighthouse, lying 40 miles west of Orkney and 37 miles NE of Cape Wrath. Its isolated position made it unsuitable for the accommodation of keepers' families; hence provision was made in Stromness (see separate list description). Designed and constructed by David Alan Stevenson, a member of Britain's foremost lighthouse engineering family, the Sule Skerry light answered a need for increased protection of the 'north-about' route around Britain, owing to additional congestion and resultant collisions in the English Channel. Although Sumburgh and North Ronaldsay were already lit, and the eastern side of Orkney being fairly well protected, the 160 miles of seaboard between the Pentland Firth and Muckle Flugga were dangerously unlit. Consequently, a series of important lights was built around the northern fringes of Britain - 2 on Fair Isle in 1892, Sule Skerry and Ratray Head in 1895 and the Flannan Islands in 1899. Sule Skerry island is fairly low lying, rising to 45 feet above high water, and is almost out of sight of land, the combination of these two factors necessit

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.