Ornsay is a small tidal island to the east of the
Sleat
Sleat is a peninsula and civil parish on the island of Skye in the Highland council area of Scotland, known as "the garden of Skye". It is the home of the clan ''MacDonald of Sleat''. The name comes from the Scottish Gaelic , which in turn comes ...
peninsula on the
Isle of Skye in the
Inner Hebrides of
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
.
Description
The island provides good shelter to a natural harbour which is overlooked by the village of
Isleornsay
Isleornsay (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Iarmain) is a village lying off the main Armadale to Sleat road (the A851) on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It overlooks, but is not upon, the island of Ornsay. The island itself shelters one of the best nat ...
. The "Ornsay"
lighthouse stands on the neighbouring islet, Eilean Sionnach. After the lighthouse was automated, Eilean Sionnach Lighthouse Keeper's Cottage became privately owned and is now let as holiday accommodation.
Lighthouse
The lighthouse was built in 1857 by
Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
and
David Stevenson. It is a masonry tower with a gallery, lantern and keeper's house. The apparatus entered service on 10 November 1857. The lens system was improved in order to show the light strength according to the distance to be shown. The lighthouse is equipped with a fourteen-day
battery backup
An uninterruptible power supply or uninterruptible power source (UPS) is an electrical apparatus that provides emergency power to a load when the input power source or mains power fails. A UPS differs from an auxiliary or emergency power system ...
to keep the emergency light working. It was modernized in 1988 when
mains power
Mains electricity or utility power, power grid, domestic power, and wall power, or in some parts of Canada as hydro, is a general-purpose alternating-current (AC) electric power supply. It is the form of electrical power that is delivered to h ...
was installed. The lighthouse emits a white
occulting light
A light characteristic is all of the properties that make a particular navigational light identifiable. Graphical and textual descriptions of navigational light sequences and colours are displayed on nautical charts and in Light Lists with the cha ...
every 8 seconds and was automated in 1962.
Ornsay
Northern Lighthouse Board. Retrieved 20 May 2016
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 ...
References
External links
Northern Lighthouse Board
Uninhabited islands of Highland (council area)
{{UK-lighthouse-stub