Skerryvore

Between 1790 and 1844 more than thirty ships were known to have been wrecked in the area. Robert Stevenson, chief engineer of the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) landed on the reef in 1804 and reported on the need for a beacon of some kind there. In 1814 he returned in the company of Sir Walter Scott and a party of NLB Commissioners.[16] Scott wrote:

Quiet perseverance on the part of Mr S, and great kicking, bouncing and squabbling upon that of the yacht, who seems to like the idea of Skerry Vhor as little as the Commissioners. At length, by dint of exertion, come in sight of this long ridge of rocks (chiefly under water), on which the tide breaks in a most tremendous style. There appear a few low broad rocks at one end of the reef, which is about a mile in length. These are never entirely under water though the surf dashes over them.... It will be a most desolate position for a lighthouse, the Bell Rock and Eddystone a joke to it, for the nearest land is the wild island of Tyree, at 14 miles distance. So much for Skerry Vhor.[17]

Later that year an Act of Parliament was passed enabling construction of a lighthouse, yet despite pleas for a light arriving almost weekly at the NLB, events proceeded only slowly. It was not until 1834 that Robert Stevenson returned in the company of his son Alan. A painstaking survey made it clear that there was little choice for a location. The single largest area was a rock that measured only 280 sq ft (26 m²) at low tide. Readings for wave pressure indicated that any tower would have to withstand forces of 6,000 pounds per square foot (300 kilopascals). There were suggestions that a tower of cast iron or bronze might be sufficient, but Stevenson senior wrote that "no pecuniary consideration could in my opinion have justified the adoption of an iron lighthouse for Skerryvore."[18][19][20] On more than one occasion the surveyors had to warn passing vessels of the danger. A ship from Newcastle, whose charts showed only the main rock some miles away, was boarded near Bo Ruadh. The Master, oblivious to the dangers, was found lying at ease smoking a pipe with his wife beside him knitting stockings.[21][22]

Still the Commissioners prevaricated, daunted by the potential costs, estimated by Robert Stevenson at £63,000. They set up a special Skerryvore Committee, whose members decided to visit the site by steamer to see for themselves. Just off Skerryvore a fire broke out in the boiler room crippling the ship. It was extinguished and no harm was done, but the experience may have been persuasive.[23]

Alan Stevenson was duly appointed as the engineer for the project aged only 30. He designed a tower 156 feet (48 m) high with a base of 42 feet (13 m), narrowing to just 16 feet (4.9 m) at the lantern gallery. The lowest sections would be solid, although at 26 feet (8 m) feet high they were less than half the height of the base of the later light at nearby Dubh Artach. Nonetheless, the structure would weigh 4,308 long tons (4,377 tonnes) and the volume of the base would be more than 4 times larger than the entire structure of the Eddystone light and twice that of the Bell Rock. With 151 steps to the top it would be the tallest and heaviest lighthouse yet built anywhere in the modern world, and today it is still one of the tallest lighthouse in the United Kingdom.[4][5][18][24][25]

Hynish signal tower, now a museum

Hynish on Tiree was the initial shore station and construction site. Located on the south west corner of Tiree, its proximity to Skerryvore and the resulting abundance of bounty from the wrecks, led to rentals being higher here and on the rest of the west coast than elsewhere on the island.[26] Work on the new facilities began in 1837; granite blocks were quarried from Mull and brought to the village to be cut and shaped before being shipped out to the reef. Several cottages for the keepers were built in 1844 from the same stone as well as a massive pier and a tall granite tower to enable signalling to and from Skerryvore itself.[27] Stevenson remarked that the hive of activity there contrasted with the "desolation and misery" he imagined to be the lot of the surrounding population.[28]

Temporary barrack used in the erection of the Skerryvore lighthouse [29]

In 1838 £15,000 in wages alone was spent on constructing a 150-ton steamer in Leith to ferry workers and materials out to the reef. The difficulties should not be underestimated. Although Skerryvore is a dozen miles (19 km) from Hynish it is 50 miles (80 km) from the mainland. The first work to be undertaken on Skerryvore itself was the construction of a six-legged frame on top of which a wooden barrack to house 40 men was placed. The building was created in Gourock before being dismantled and re-built on site.[30]

Initial work began on the rock on 7 August 1838. Stevenson and 21 workmen arrived on board the sailing vessel Pharos and began to unload the barrack, whose massive legs were set into holes blasted out of the rock. After only two days the site had to be abandoned as a storm swept in from the Atlantic. It was a further six days before they could resume the punishing schedule of 16 hours a day work between 4 am and 8 pm. Fearing sea sickness, many of the man preferred to attempt to sleep on the damp rocks than on the ever-rolling Pharos.[24][31]

Work for the season lasted only until 11 September, by which time the barrack legs had been secured although not the main structure. Less than two months later Stevenson received a letter from the storekeeper at Hynish, Mr. Hogben. It began: "Dear Sir, I am extremely sorry to inform you that the barrack erected on Skerryvore Rock has totally disappeared."[32] The structure had been destroyed during a gale on 3 November and four months effort had been wasted.[4][32] Stevenson hired a boat to take him out to inspect the damage the same day he received this news. Firm in his self-belief, he resolved to build a stronger but otherwise identical replacement. Work began in April 1839 and by early September the completed barrack stood 60 feet (18 m) above the rock. Entry was via ladders attached to the legs that led into the lowest level containing a kitchen. The middle level contained two cabins, one for Stevenson, the other for his master of works, whilst the top level provided sleeping quarters for a further 30 to 40 men.[33]

Work on the foundations for the lighthouse continued until 30 September. A total of 296 charges were used to remove 2,000 long tons (2,000 tonnes) of rock and Stevenson believed that the rock was so hard that the effort involved was four times that required for boring Aberdeenshire granite. The work went well but by the end of the second season, no blocks had yet been laid. However, between April 1839 and June 1840 4,300 blocks had been fashioned, the stone donated by the Duke of Argyll from quarries on Mull. The roughly hewn rock was taken to Hynish where the blocks were hammered and chiselled into shape. The largest weighed over 2+1⁄2 long tons (2.5 t), the smallest 3⁄4 long ton (0.8 t) and the precision required meant that a single block could take 320 worker-hours to complete.[34]

Skerryvore Lighthouse
Sgeir Mhòr

Location	Skerryvore, Argyll and Bute, Tiree, United Kingdom
OS grid	NL8400426289
Coordinates	56°19′23″N 7°06′58″W
Tower
Constructed	1844
Built by	Alan Stevenson
Construction	granite (tower)
Automated	1994
Height	48 m (157 ft)
Shape	tapered cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern incorporating heeper's quarters
Markings	unpainted (tower), black (lantern)
Power source	solar power
Operator	Northern Lighthouse Board
Heritage	category A listed building
Fog signal	one blast every 60 s
Light
Deactivated	1954–1959
Focal height	46 m (151 ft)
Range	23 nmi (43 km; 26 mi)
Characteristic	Fl W 10s

The new barrack withstood the violence of the storms during the winter of 1839–1840. Work re-commenced on the rock on 30 April 1840, and after the arrival of the new steamer Skerryvore the carefully fashioned blocks began to arrive on site. The first one was laid by John Campbell, 7th Duke of Argyll on 4 July. His son George later wrote:

That sight is as fresh in my memory after an interval of 57 years as if I had seen it yesterday. The natural surfaces of the rock were irregular in the highest degree. Worn, broken, and battered by the unnumbered ages of the most tremendous surf, and by the splitting of the rock along lines of natural fissures, there did not seem to be one square foot of rock which was even tolerably level. Yet in the midst of this torn and fissured surface we suddenly came on a magnificent circular floor, 42 ft [12.8 m] in diameter, as level as water, and as smooth as a billiard table.[35][36]

Soon up to 95 blocks a day were arriving from Hynish, although the weather continued to play its part. During the summer of 1840 the steamer was unable to reach the reef for fourteen consecutive days, and on another occasion no landings were possible for seven weeks and supplies began to run low. When work ceased again in the autumn, 800 tons of granite standing 8 feet 2 inches (2.49 m) high stood on Skerryvore, and up to 80 craftsmen continued to labour on the blocks at Hynish all winter.[35] The first three courses of the base are of hard Hynish gneiss, the remainder are granite from the Ross of Mull.[37]

Work continued during 1841–42, a crane being used to hoist the huge blocks as the tower rose. The last one was raised to the parapet in July 1842. Robert Stevenson, then aged 70, visited the site on his last annual voyage of inspection. The walls at the base are 9.5 feet (2.9 m) thick, and 2 feet (0.61 m) thick at the top. The lightroom and lantern sit above nine apartments 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter.[37] The total cost of the works undertaken by the Northern Lighthouse Board was £86,977, including the cost of establishing the shore station at Hynish, estimated at £13,000. It is a credit to Stevenson, his foreman Charles Stewart, and Captain Macurich the landing master, that not a single life was lost during the construction.[13][37][38][39][40][41]

19th-century engraving of the lighthouse

The final season of work in 1843 was spent in fitting out the interior. By then Alan had become chief engineer to the NLB and the final work was undertaken under the supervision of his brother Thomas. The light, which had eight lenses revolving around a four wick lamp with pyramidal lenses above and reflecting prisms below each one, was constructed by John Milne of Edinburgh. The machinery was ready by the beginning of 1844, but it was seven weeks before a landing could be undertaken on the rock. The lamp was finally lit on 1 February and it shone without interruption for the next 110 years.[37][42]

Skerryvore was Alan Stevenson's greatest achievements from both an engineering and aesthetic perspective. No philistine, he chose a hyberbolic curve for the outline for stylistic reasons.[43] His nephew Robert Louis described it as "the noblest of all extant deep-sea lights" and according to the Northern Lighthouse Board it is "asserted by some that Skerryvore is the world's most graceful lighthouse".[4][44][45]