Butt of Lewis Lighthouse, designed by
David Stevenson, was built at
Butt of Lewis
The Butt of Lewis ( gd, Rubha Robhanais) is the most northerly point of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. The headland, which lies in the North Atlantic, is frequently battered by heavy swells and storms and is marked by the Butt of Lewis Lighthouse ...
to aid shipping in the 1860s. Unusual for a lighthouse in Scotland, it is constructed of red brick, and is unpainted. The station was automated in 1998, one of the last to be converted. A modern
differential GPS
Differential Global Positioning Systems (DGPSs) supplement and enhance the positional data available from global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs). A DGPS for GPS can increase accuracy by about a thousandfold, from approximately to .
DGPSs c ...
base station has now been sited on a nearby hill to further aid navigation. This hill was also the site for a
Lloyd's
Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is an insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gov ...
Signal Station A signal station is a form of Aids to Navigation that is defined by the IHO simply as "A signal station is a place on shore from which signals are made to ships at sea". While this broad definition would include coastal radio stations and fog signa ...
from the 1890s.
The road to the lighthouse passes a sheltered cove called
Port Stoth. Agricultural
lazy bed
Lazy bed ( ga, ainneor or , gd, feannagan ) is a traditional method of arable cultivation. Rather like cord rig cultivation, parallel banks of ridge and furrow are dug by spade although lazy beds have banks that are bigger, up to in width, ...
s are also visible along the coast. The Butt of Lewis features some of the oldest rocks in Europe, having been formed in the
Precambrian
The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...
period up to 3000 million years ago. Following the coast southwest from the lighthouse there is a
natural arch
A natural arch, natural bridge, or (less commonly) rock arch is a natural landform where an arch has formed with an opening underneath. Natural arches commonly form where inland cliffs, coastal cliffs, fins or stacks are subject to erosion f ...
called the "Eye of the Butt" ( gd, Toll a’ Ròigh). It can be best viewed from the
Habost
Habost ( gd, Tàbost) is the name of two crofting townships on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
One is in the Ness area at the northern tip of the island at and is home to an arts and music centre. It is a traditional area o ...
machair
A machair (; sometimes machar in English) is a fertile low-lying grassy plain found on part of the northwest coastlines of Ireland and Scotland, in particular the Outer Hebrides. The best examples are found on North and South Uist, Harris an ...
.
See also
*
List of lighthouses in Scotland
This is a list of lighthouses in Scotland. The Northern Lighthouse Board, from which much of the information is derived, are responsible for most lighthouses in Scotland but have handed over responsibility in the major estuaries to the port aut ...
*
List of Northern Lighthouse Board lighthouses
This is a list of the currently operational lighthouses of the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB). The list is divided by geographical location, and then by whether the lighthouses are classed by the NLB as a 'major lighthouse' or a 'minor light'. F ...
*
List of Category A listed buildings in the Western Isles
References
External links
Butt of Lewis history by the Northern Lighthouse BoardPanoramas of the Butt of Lewis Lighthouse
Northern Lighthouse Board
Lighthouses completed in 1862
Lighthouses in Outer Hebrides
Category A listed lighthouses
Isle of Lewis
1862 establishments in Scotland
{{UK-lighthouse-stub