Skerryvore

Skerryvore Lighthouse sits on a remote island on the west coast of Scotland, marking a very extensive and treacherous reef of rocks lying off the Hebrides approximately 19km south west of Tiree.

The name derives from the Gaelic; an sgeir mhòr, meaning “the great rock or skerry”.

The lighthouse is built of granite quarried on the Island of Mull during the six years from 1838 to 1844, to the design of the engineer Alan Stevenson, and is regarded as an outstanding example of lighthouse engineering and graceful design.

The height of the tower is almost 48m high with a diameter of 13m at the base, tapering to 5m at the top.

The shore station was at Hynish on Tiree (which now houses the Skerryvore Lighthouse Museum); operations were later transferred to Erraid, west of Mull. The remoteness of the location led to the keepers receiving additional payments in kind. The light shone without a break from 1844 until a fire in 1954 shut down operations for five years. The lighthouse was automated in 1994.