Archives shine illuminating insight into Highland lighthouse life
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Today there are over 200 lighthouses around the coast of Scotland that are still in use. Now all automated they have come far from the first recorded lighthouse built in 1635, its light generated by a coal fire.
Scotland’s lighthouses are synonymous with the Stevenson family of engineers, with almost all of the lighthouses today designed and built over 150 years by four generations of this prolific family.
There is a particularly moving letter at The Highland Archive Centre involving the subject of light-keeping. Written in 1828, it is a plea from John Ross who has completed his training as light keeper only to be told by Robert Stevenson that he might not gain employment as a light keeper for “several years”. Previously removed with his family from Lewis to Skye and struggling to provide for his family despite teaching in the local ‘moveable school’, he is appealing to Isabella Baillie for her to represent him favourably to the Board of Commissioners so that they reconsider him for immediate employment as light keeper in the new lighthouses built in Mull of Galloway, Tarbat Ness or Cape Wrath.
Related: Highland Archive Centre: Family history continues to be very popular
We don’t know what happened to John and his family, or whether he ever did gain employment as a light keeper, but we can certainly empathise with his life’s struggles through this poignant letter.
We have another small glimpse into the life of a light keeper from some records for the Wilson family of Rona lighthouse. Lewis woman, Marion Campbell, married Fair Isle man, Stewart Wilson on November 9, 1905, after he had been stationed in Point as keeper at Tiumpan Head lighthouse.
Their first married home was the lighthouse on the island of Rona, where three of their eight children were born. Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly given the geographical challenges, one of their sons, Jeremiah, was not registered until about six weeks after his birth. The family were posted out to a different lighthouse about every five years, living in lighthouses at Rona, Rhinns of Islay, Bressay (Shetland), Butt of Lewis and Scrabster.
With the many plans held in the Highland Archive Centre it’s no surprise to find some for lighthouses. Copies of plans for Ardnamurchan lighthouse drawn in 1846 give us an insight into the accommodation of this impressive building.
On the other end of the scale, the centre has records for Corpach lighthouse – a small pepperpot design and the subject of many letters of correspondence in 1947 between Willliam Moyes and Sons and the engineer and manager at the Caledonian Canal Offices in Clachnaharry, Inverness. There had been an explosion, which thankfully caused no human harm and no permanent damage.
For what it lacks in stature, Corpach lighthouse makes up for in the number of records the archive centre holds for it. Included in a very full folder are tenancy arrangements, canal bridge load specifications, plans, sketches, photograph, general notes, material relating to the Factories Acts, correspondence with Wm Moyes and Son regarding navigation lights and lighthouses Bona and Gairlochy and of course many notes concerning the explosion. It seems there is never a dull day in the life of a lighthouse, or its keepers.
