Kylmäpihlaja Lighthouse ( Finnish: ''Kylmäpihlajan majakka'') is a combined

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

and

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

station located on the small island of Kylmäpihlaja, in the outer archipelago of

Rauma Rauma may refer to: Places * Rauma, Finland, a town and municipality in the Satakunta region of western Finland * Rauma Municipality, a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway * Rauma (river), a river in the Romsdalen valley in Møre og Ro ...

, Finland, some from the mainland in the

Bothnian Sea The Bothnian Sea (; ) links the Bothnian Bay (also called the Bay of Bothnia) with the Baltic Sea, Baltic proper. Kvarken is situated between the two. Together, the Bothnian Sea and Bay make up a larger geographical entity, the Gulf of Bothnia, ...

. It serves the southern shipping lane of the Port of Rauma.

Facilities

Commissioned in 1953, the lighthouse replaced an earlier

lightvessel A lightvessel, or lightship, is a ship that acts as a lighthouse. It is used in waters that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction. Although some records exist of fire beacons being placed on ships in Roman times, the ...

, which was relocated to

Kemi Kemi (; ; ; ) is a cities of Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located approximately from the city of Tornio and the Finland–Sweden border, Swedish border. The distance to Oulu is to the south and t ...

. The facilities, in addition to the light, include a

fog horn A foghorn or fog signal is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of navigational hazards such as rocky coastlines, or boats of the presence of other vessels, in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport. ...

, radar and

radio beacon In navigation, a radio beacon or radiobeacon is a kind of beacon, a device that marks a fixed location and allows direction finding, direction-finding equipment to find relative Bearing (navigation), bearing. But instead of employing visible lig ...

, as well as a diesel-powered engine-generator which provided the island's electricity until the 1980s, when a cable was laid down connecting the island to the mainland. The light source has been electric from the outset, although this was earlier backed up by a gas light which would operate automatically in the event of a power cut. When the cable connection with the mainland was installed, the gas light was removed and the island's generator now provides the backup power.

Accommodation

The lighthouse building comprises a 12-

storey A storey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or story (American English), is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the wor ...

tower and a two-storey accommodation block. These originally housed the station's staff of two lighthouse keepers, twelve pilots and eight

pilot boat A pilot boat is a type of boat used to transport maritime pilots between land and the inbound or outbound ships that they are piloting. Pilot boats were once sailing boats that had to be fast because the first pilot to reach the incoming ship ...

drivers. After the pilot operations were relocated in the 1990s, the City of Rauma acquired the property, which now operates as a seasonal hotel with 15 rooms and a restaurant, as well as a guest

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...

. The navigational and radar facilities remain with the Finnish Maritime Administration.

References

External links

Kylmäpihlaja websiteThe story of Kylmäpihlaja
by VisitRauma {{Authority control Lighthouses in Finland Rauma, Finland Buildings and structures in Rauma, Finland Water transport in Finland Lighthouses completed in 1953