Scottish Lighthouses

An Illustrated History

by Michael A.W. Strachan

Before the age of the lighthouse Scotland’s untamed seas and perilous rocky coast too often became the watery end to the mariner’s voyage. From its establishment in 1786, it was the remit of the Northern Lighthouse Board to tame these harsh seas by building guiding lights around Scotland’s rugged coast ‘For the Safety of All’.

The history of Scotland’s lighthouses would be composed by one family of engineers. For its first 150 years the NLB would be shaped by four generations of the Stevenson family as lighthouse builders, innovators and inventors. From humble beginnings at Kinnaird Head, this family would perfect the engineering marvels of the Bell Rock and Skerryvore lighthouses, and pioneer wireless technologies into the modern age.

The lighthouse story is also one of habitation on Stevensons’ creations on the extremity of civilisation as the light-keepers, and their families, lived and served on the wind-battered terrain of Scotland’s edge. The technological breakthroughs which began with the Stevensons advanced to automation and the end of the light-keeper.

This is an excellent book and is highly recommended.