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This year marks the 200th Anniversary :cool:
History
The oldest existing rock Lighthouse in the British Isles is the tower on the Bell, or Inchcape, Rock a long and treacherous reef lying in the North Sea, some 12 miles East of Dundee and in the fairway of vessels plying to and from the Firths of Tay and Forth.
Even in the old days, this rock had proved to be a danger to navigation. In his account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, Robert Stevenson, Engineer to the Board, stated "there is a tradition that an Abbot of Aberbrothock directed a bell to be erected on the Rock, so connected with a floating apparatus, that the winds and sea acted upon it, and tolled the bell, thus giving warning to the mariner of his approaching danger. Upon similar authority, the bell, it is said, was afterwards carried off by pirates, and the humane intentions of the Abbot thus frustrated" Robert Stevenson went on however to state "of the erection of the bell, and the machinery by which it was rung, if such ever existed, it would have been interesting to have some authentic evidence. But, though a search has been made in the cartularies of the Abbey of Aberbrothock, preserved in the Advocates' Library, and containing a variety of grants and other deeds, from the middle of the 13th to the end of the 15th century, no trace is to be found of the Bell Rock, or anything connected with it. The erection of the bell is not however an improbable conjecture; and we can more readily suppose that an attempt of that kind was made..."
The erection of a permanent seamark on the Bell Rock presented some difficult structural problems. The surface of the rock is uncovered only at low water while at high water it is submerged to a depth of some 16 feet.
more at http://www.nlb.org.uk/LighthouseLibr...use/Bell-Rock/
The Miracle Lighthouse - Part 1
Part 2
History
The oldest existing rock Lighthouse in the British Isles is the tower on the Bell, or Inchcape, Rock a long and treacherous reef lying in the North Sea, some 12 miles East of Dundee and in the fairway of vessels plying to and from the Firths of Tay and Forth.
Even in the old days, this rock had proved to be a danger to navigation. In his account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, Robert Stevenson, Engineer to the Board, stated "there is a tradition that an Abbot of Aberbrothock directed a bell to be erected on the Rock, so connected with a floating apparatus, that the winds and sea acted upon it, and tolled the bell, thus giving warning to the mariner of his approaching danger. Upon similar authority, the bell, it is said, was afterwards carried off by pirates, and the humane intentions of the Abbot thus frustrated" Robert Stevenson went on however to state "of the erection of the bell, and the machinery by which it was rung, if such ever existed, it would have been interesting to have some authentic evidence. But, though a search has been made in the cartularies of the Abbey of Aberbrothock, preserved in the Advocates' Library, and containing a variety of grants and other deeds, from the middle of the 13th to the end of the 15th century, no trace is to be found of the Bell Rock, or anything connected with it. The erection of the bell is not however an improbable conjecture; and we can more readily suppose that an attempt of that kind was made..."
The erection of a permanent seamark on the Bell Rock presented some difficult structural problems. The surface of the rock is uncovered only at low water while at high water it is submerged to a depth of some 16 feet.
more at http://www.nlb.org.uk/LighthouseLibr...use/Bell-Rock/
The Miracle Lighthouse - Part 1
Part 2
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