Monday 15 October 2012

BARNS NESS LIGHTHOUSE 1901-2005







Monday the 15 of october, and we are well into Autumn and it won't be long now until the clocks go back an hour, tonight it was sunset just after six pm, so i grabbed my camera and pugsley and headed along the john muir way towards barns ness lighthouse to try and get some pictures.

 There where a few surfers riding the autumn swells that travel across the north sea and break on our reefs and beaches, this guy got more than his fair share on his longboard.


The light was fading fast so i pressed on towards the lighthouse, Barns ness lighthouse is located 5km from Dunbar and was constructed by Engineer David A Stevenson between 1899 and 1901 taking approximately 2.5 years to construct, it was illuminated in october 1901 and was constructed from stone quarried from craigree near cramond.


The stone proved resilient as during ww2 the lighthouse was machine gunned yet sustained no damage, the lighthouse was manned by two keepers, however in 1966 it was electrified with a backup generator and emergency battery which would have been used if the generator failed,
Barns ness lighthouse remained semi-automated requiring a single keeper until 1986 when it was fully automated, in early 2005 the uk and ireland lighthouse authorities decided that the barns ness lighthouse  was no longer needed and was sadly deactivated in october 2005.

With the light fading fast i stopped to take one last picture before cycling west along the john muir trail towards my home in Dunbar, tonight brought some beautiful views out over the firth of fourth and i am truly lucky to have scenery like this only minutes from my front door.

Now safely home it was time to put my feet up and relax with some refreshments :)

1 comment:

  1. Cycle, coffee and cake on an autumn evening. Fine things!

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