Girdle Ness Lighthouse

The tower is a tapering cylinder, painted white, with a watch room about a third of the way up. The lantern is black and there is a gallery. The tower is {{convert|37|m}} tall and there are 182 steps to the lantern which produces two white flashes every 20 seconds. Adjacent is single-storey keepers' accommodation (which has been sold off) and ancillary buildings. DGPS is provided via two radio towers. The light was automated in 1991 and is continuously monitored on-line from the Northern Lighthouse Board headquarters in Edinburgh. There is no public access to the lighthouse.{{Cite rowlett|scte|access-date=4 February 2019}} A racon was installed after 1968. It is a Category A listed building.{{Historic Environment Scotland|desc=Girdleness Lighthouse, Greyhope Road, Including Fog Signal at South Side at Nj 9724 0530 |num=LB20078 |fewer-links=yes |access-date=4 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404220501/http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB20078 |archive-date=4 April 2017 |url-status=live }}

In 1813 the whaler Oscar was blown ashore in a storm into Greyhope Bay, at the entrance to Aberdeen Harbour. Despite rescue attempts only two men of the forty four on board were saved. The disaster had nothing to do with the lack of a light – the crew were drunk and incapable – but there were strong calls for a lighthouse to be built on the headland above the bay and this was achieved twenty years later.{{cite book |last1=Gillon |first1=Jack |title=Aberdeen in 50 Buildings. |date=2018 |publisher=Amberley Publishing |isbn=978-1-4456-7616-6 |pages=84–86 |chapter=44}}

For the construction, the engineer was Robert Stevenson and the principal contractor was James Gibb. The construction was completed in 1833 and the light was first lit on 15 October– Alexander Slight became the resident inspector and Alan Stevenson the resident engineer.

Originally sperm oil was used in eighteen Argand burners giving a fixed light at the focus of a {{convert|21|in}} diameter silvered-copper parabolic reflector. In 1847 a dioptric light was installed and the previous lantern was transferred to Inchkeith Lighthouse. In 1870 paraffin was used experimentally. In 1890 the light was replaced by a single 200,000 candlepower revolving light. Until that time there had been a second level of thirteen lights with a similar reflector at the height of the watch room so as to display white lights at two levels.{{canmore|num=19995|desc=Aberdeen, Greyhope Road, Girdleness Lighthouse and Keepers' Cottages}}{{cite web |last1=Spencer|first1=Michael|date=2009|title=Section D: Arbroath to Fraserburgh (17 towers and 47 other structures) |url=http://www.scotlights.com/sectD.htm |website=Michael’s Comprehensive List of Scottish Lights |access-date=4 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819192237/http://scotlights.com/sectD.htm |archive-date=19 August 2018|url-status=live}}{{cite book |last1=Keith |first1=Alexander |title=A thousand years of Aberdeen; |date=1972 |publisher=Aberdeen University Press |isbn=0-900015-29-2 |page=325}} As a member of a Royal Commission the Astronomer Royal, George Airy, visited in 1860. He said it was "the best lighthouse that I have seen".{{cite web |title=Girdle Ness Lighthouse from The Gazetteer for Scotland |url=http://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst19023.html |website=www.scottish-places.info |publisher=School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, and Royal Scottish Geographical Society |access-date=4 February 2019 |language=en-gb |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908021235/http://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst19023.html |archive-date=8 September 2015 |url-status=live }}

File:Girdle Ness foghorn (geograph 2154266).jpg

Until 1987 the associated foghorn was operated when visibility was less than {{convert|5|nmi}}. It was nicknamed the "Torry Coo" (alluding to the "Turra Coo") because it sounded like a coo – one that could be heard twenty miles away. Although it is no longer used, the siren has been preserved.

• {{HMS|Girdle Ness|A387|6}}, Royal Navy missile trials ship, used for development of the Seaslug missile.

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Girdleness Lighthouse}}

• [https://www.enschrage.nl/index.html The Schottish Lighthouses] Lighthouses of Scotland and the Island of Man.
• [https://www.enschrage.nl/lh/main/main_ec/girdle_ness.html Girdle Ness Lighthouse]

{{Lighthouses of the Northern Lighthouse Board}}

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Category:Lighthouses completed in 1833

Category:Category A listed buildings in Aberdeen

Category:Category A listed lighthouses

Category:1833 establishments in Scotland

Category:Lighthouses in Scotland

Category:Buildings and structures in Aberdeen

Category:Works of Robert Stevenson (civil engineer)