There are around 200 lighthouses along the coast of Scotland and I would say we spotted more than a dozen of them on this cruise, which took us from the relatively calm waters of the Firth of Clyde outside Glasgow to the stormy waves of the North Atlantic a few hundred miles away.
Lighthouses have always been a godsend for sailors (the first recorded lighthouse, the Pharos of Alexandria, was built around 280 BC, although the ancient Greek poet Homer had already referred to a lighthouse several centuries earlier in his epic poem The Iliad).
Despite the introduction of GPS and other electronic navigational aids, many modern sailors still rely on these high-mounted beacons to help them reach shore safely while also warning them of potential dangers – from dangerous shoals to rocky shores and outcrops where many a ship has been wrecked.
Scotland’s first lighthouse was built in the 17th century, but most of those still in existence today were built in the 19th century by four generations of one family, the Stevensons, and are still under the care of the Northern Lighthouse Board.
During a trip to the Shetland Islands we visit a special lighthouse. Designed by Robert Stevenson – the grandfather of author Robert Louis Stevenson – Sumburgh Head Lighthouse stands 91 metres above sea level on the site of a former Iron Age fort at the southernmost point of the Shetland mainland.
It’s a glorious and windswept setting, high above a nature reserve. The surrounding cliffs teem with seabirds such as puffins and fulmars in the warmer breeding months, while whales and dolphins are occasionally spotted in the waters below. On a clear day you can make out Fair Isle, the most southerly Shetland island, 24 miles away. It is home to two Stevenson-built lighthouses, including the last manned one in Scotland, whose last lighthouse keeper left in 1998. Seven years earlier, Sumburgh Head lighthouse was fully automated and the cottages where the lighthouse keepers once lived have since been converted into tourist accommodation.
Even if you’re unlucky with the wildlife or visibility, there’s a fascinating visitor centre on Sumburgh Head that traces the history and development of this lighthouse, whose beam can be seen up to 45km away. As well as information boards and old photographs, you can view the shiny old diesel engines that powered the lighthouse’s foghorn, useful in thick fog as its tremendous sound can be heard nearly 15km away. I also read an interesting section on World War II and how a military radar station on Sumburgh Head helped save the British fleet from a surprise German air raid in 1940. As the northernmost archipelago in the UK, Shetland also, not surprisingly, boasts the northernmost lighthouse: that of Muckle Flugga, built in 1854 near Unst, one of the northernmost Shetland Islands.
We don’t get that far, but as we head south again on the penultimate day of our cruise, we get a close-up look at another lighthouse, the wonderfully named Rubha nan Gall, on the Isle of Mull. Walking along a shady 2km forest path from the pretty harbour village of Tobermory, we come to this beautifully situated lighthouse, which means ‘foreign point’ in Scottish Gaelic. Built in 1857 by David and Thomas Stevenson on a small island just above sea level, it is connected by a bridge to the former lighthouse keepers’ houses: one is a private home, the other has been converted into self-catering accommodation that sleeps up to six people and offers wonderful views of the lighthouse as well as views of dreamy sunrises and sunsets. We make our way back to our ship in Tobermory. Later that evening, we will pass more than a dozen more lighthouses on our return journey to Glasgow. We won’t see most of them since we’ll be sleeping, but it’s nice to imagine these sturdy old beacons continuing to sparkle.
+ Steve McKenna was a guest of Ponant. They neither influenced nor saw this story.
Fact sheet
+ Ponant offers cruises to the Scottish islands departing from Glasgow in May 2025, starting at around USD 7,000 per person. Prices include food and drink, excursions and expeditions, and WiFi. See au.ponant.com
+ For more information about Scotland’s lighthouses visit nlb.org.uk
+ For help planning a trip to Scotland, visit visitscotland.com
