BLUEMOMENT

Yesterday I had a look at the Bell Rock. A 12 seater RIB does trips from Arbroath harbour: 1 hour in total; waterproofs & ljs provided. This was my first experience of a RIB and I found it fast (28knots I believe) but very cold and bouncy. Worth it to get close to the lighthouse, however: 200 years old and in fine shape. The Inchcape Rock is a right wicked looking reef. A few miles to the east there's now the anemometer mast for the proposed wind farm.

Trip details here: arbroathseasaf@aol.com

I've made a hobby of landing on some of the west coast lighthouses, especially in August for International Lighthouse weekend, and have been in awe of the engineering of the Stevensons.
Skerryvore light (south of Tiree) is similar to Bell Rock, though its rock doesn't submerge. The size of the pieces of stone that were winched up to form the tower, after being precisely cut ashore, is amazing. Blocks of 500kg - 2 tonnes, placed exactly such that after the height of 156ft, the whole tower was within a eighth of an inch of vertical.
I read an account that said that during Skerryvore's construction (summers only), and when they completed to about 60ft, during that winter recess, some sea tossed rocks ended up inside the tower, (meaning waves of that height). (https://archive.org/stream/accountofske ... 2/mode/2up chapter 8 mentions this)

There are several books about the making of these various testaments to pre-Victorian Engineering - make interesting reading, and give a new perspective of respect for the power of the sea!

Thanks for the link - fascinating stuff.

When we visited Barra Head light we found seaweed at the foot of the tower - around 600 feet above the sea, presumably as a result of winter storms.

mm5aho wrote:https://archive.org/stream/accountofske ... 2/mode/2up

Great link, thanks.