Barns Ness Lighthouse is from

Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and gave its name to an ecc ...

and was constructed by the engineers and brothers David A. Stevenson and

Charles Alexander Stevenson Charles Alexander Stevenson MICE MIEE FRSE (23 December 1855, – 9 May 1950) was a Scottish lighthouse engineer who built twenty-three lighthouses in and around Scotland. Life He was born at 8 Forth Street in the east part of Edinburgh's N ...

, cousins of the novelist

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

, between 1899 and 1901. Taking approximately 2½ years to construct, it was constructed from stone quarried from Craigree (near

Cramond Cramond Village (; gd, Cathair Amain) is a village and suburb in the north-west of Edinburgh, Scotland, at the mouth of the River Almond where it enters the Firth of Forth. The Cramond area has evidence of Mesolithic, Bronze Age and Roman ac ...

) and Barnton. In 1976 it was described as a tall tower, slightly tapered with a circular section having a circular lantern which has triangular panes and a domed roof. The keepers' cottages were, as is typical, one floored, flat roofed buildings which were coated with harling but had their

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

s exposed. The

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...

above the door to the lighthouse is dated 1901. Within the compound of the lighthouse there was also a

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

and a flagpole. The stone proved resilient during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, when the lighthouse was machine-gunned yet sustained no damage. The

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

was staffed by two

lighthouse-keeper A lighthouse keeper or lightkeeper is a person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Lighthouse keepers were sometimes referred to as ...

s until 1966 when it was electrified, with a

backup generator An emergency power system is an independent source of electrical power that supports important electrical systems on loss of normal power supply. A standby power system may include a standby generator, batteries and other apparatus. Emergency p ...

and emergency

battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

(used if the generator failed). It remained semi-automated, requiring only a single keeper, until 1986, when it was completely automated. The power of the sealed beam light system was up to 1,300,000

candlepower Candlepower (abbreviated as cp or CP) is a unit of measurement for luminous intensity. It expresses levels of light intensity relative to the light emitted by a candle of specific size and constituents. The historical candlepower is equal to 0.981 ...

. In early 2005, the UK and Ireland lighthouse authorities issued a consultation regarding a review of lighthouses, and it was decided that the Barns Ness Lighthouse was no longer needed. It was deactivated in October 2005. It was put up for sale in 2006.

References

External links

*Northern Lighthouse Board
Northern Lighthouse Board – Barns Ness profile
{{Authority control Lighthouses completed in 1901 Lighthouses in Scotland Buildings and structures in East Lothian

See also

References

External links