The Eagle Island lighthouses were a pair of lighthouses on Eagle Island,

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the Taxus baccata, yew trees") is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Conn ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, of which only one remains. Two lighthouses were commissioned in 1830 in response to requests from the Coastguards who were concerned at the sea conditions at

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, further south. The Board inspector, however, ruled in favour of locating the new lighthouses on Eagle Island, one in the east and the other in the west, with between them, at a cost of almost £40,000 (roughly £ or € in ). Their lights were aligned at a height of above sea level and could be seen to the east as far as

Broadhaven Bay Broadhaven Bay ( ga, Cnocán na Líne) is a natural bay of the Atlantic Ocean on the northwestern coast of County Mayo, Ireland. The opening of the bay faces northward, stretching 8.6 km between Erris Head in the west and Kid Island/Oileá ...

and to the south as far as

Blacksod Bay Blacksod Bay ( ga, Cuan an Fhóid Duibh) is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean in Erris, north County Mayo, Ireland. The long and wide bay is bounded on its western side by the Mullet Peninsula. Its eastern side includes Kiltane Parish, which ext ...

. The lighthouses became operational in September 1835. Eagle Island is located close to the edge of the

Continental Shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

and is constantly pounded by powerful waves from the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

. When the lighthouses were first built in the 19th century there were two lighthouses and seven dwelling houses on Eagle Island, according to the 1841

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

. By the 1911 census there was only one dwelling house listed on the island. Despite the erection of a massive storm wall to protect the lighthouses, one of the lighthouses was destroyed by the severe storms and its remains still litter the ground it used to stand on. Although the lighthouse sites sit almost above the

high water mark A high water mark is a point that represents the maximum rise of a body of water over land. Such a mark is often the result of a flood, but high water marks may reflect an all-time high, an annual high (highest level to which water rose that ...

, during a severe storm on 17 January 1836, a rock was thrown up the cliffs and smashed the glass in a window high up in the tower building. On 11 March 1861 at midday the light room of the East tower was struck by a

rogue wave Rogue waves (also known as freak waves, monster waves, episodic waves, killer waves, extreme waves, and abnormal waves) are unusually large, unpredictable, and suddenly appearing surface waves that can be extremely dangerous to ships, even to lar ...

, smashing 23 panes, washing some of the lamps down the stairs, and damaging the reflectors with broken glass beyond repair. The light was restored the following night with a reduced number of lamps and reflectors. So much water cascaded down the tower in the incident that it was impossible for the keepers to open the door at the base, and they had to drill holes in it to let the water out. Storms constantly batter the lighthouse at Eagle Island and gradually it was realised that Eagle Island was not well suited to human habitation. The families on the island were rehoused near to Corclough on the mainland at the end of the 19th century, although lighthouse keepers remained resident. On 31 March 1988 the lighthouse was made automatic and there have been no lighthouse keepers resident on the island since.

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Eagle Island photos

A Flickr photoCommissioners of Irish Lights
{{authority control Lighthouses completed in 1830 Lighthouses in the Republic of Ireland Buildings and structures in County Mayo 1830 establishments in Ireland Lighthouses on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage

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