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Skerryvore
Skerryvore (from the Gaelic An Sgeir Mhòr meaning "The Great Skerry") is a remote island that lies off the west coast of Scotland, 11 nautical miles (20 kilometres) southwest of Tiree. Skerryvore Lighthouse is located on these rocks, built with some difficulty between 1838 and 1844 by Alan Stevenson.
At a height of 156 feet (48 metres) it is the tallest lighthouse in Scotland. 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.
In pre-historic times the rocks that now form Skerryvore were covered by the ice sheets that spread from Scotland out into the Atlantic Ocean beyond the Outer Hebrides. After the last retreat of the ice around 20,000 years ago, sea levels were up to 400 feet (120 m) lower than at present. Although the isostatic rise of land makes estimating post-glacial coastlines a complex task, circa 14,000 BP it is likely that the reef was at the south western end of a large island consisting of the modern islands of Tiree and Coll and the surrounding land.
Steadily rising sea levels would then have slowly isolated and finally all but submerged the shoals of Skerryvore, a barrier of innumerable metamorphic remnants that stretch for 8 miles (13 kilometres) lying in a south-westerly direction. A detailed survey undertaken in 1834 listed more than 130 main rocks including Am Bonn Sligheach (Boinshley) (Scottish Gaelic: The Deceitful Bottom) and Am Bogha Ruadh (Scottish Gaelic: The Red Submerged Rock).
The rocks have been worn smooth by the action of the waves and are constantly affected by spray. Alan Stevenson wrote: "The effect of the jet d'eau was at times extremely beautiful, the water being so broken as to form a snow-white and opaque pillar, surrounded by a fine vapour in which, during sunshine, beautiful rainbows were observed ".
It is an isolated outpost of the Inner Hebrides archipelago composed of Lewisian gneiss, formed in the Precambrian eon, these rocks being amongst the most ancient rocks in Europe. A further hazard to shipping is a magnetic anomaly in the area.
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. 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.
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Skerryvore AI simulator
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Skerryvore
Skerryvore (from the Gaelic An Sgeir Mhòr meaning "The Great Skerry") is a remote island that lies off the west coast of Scotland, 11 nautical miles (20 kilometres) southwest of Tiree. Skerryvore Lighthouse is located on these rocks, built with some difficulty between 1838 and 1844 by Alan Stevenson.
At a height of 156 feet (48 metres) it is the tallest lighthouse in Scotland. 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.
In pre-historic times the rocks that now form Skerryvore were covered by the ice sheets that spread from Scotland out into the Atlantic Ocean beyond the Outer Hebrides. After the last retreat of the ice around 20,000 years ago, sea levels were up to 400 feet (120 m) lower than at present. Although the isostatic rise of land makes estimating post-glacial coastlines a complex task, circa 14,000 BP it is likely that the reef was at the south western end of a large island consisting of the modern islands of Tiree and Coll and the surrounding land.
Steadily rising sea levels would then have slowly isolated and finally all but submerged the shoals of Skerryvore, a barrier of innumerable metamorphic remnants that stretch for 8 miles (13 kilometres) lying in a south-westerly direction. A detailed survey undertaken in 1834 listed more than 130 main rocks including Am Bonn Sligheach (Boinshley) (Scottish Gaelic: The Deceitful Bottom) and Am Bogha Ruadh (Scottish Gaelic: The Red Submerged Rock).
The rocks have been worn smooth by the action of the waves and are constantly affected by spray. Alan Stevenson wrote: "The effect of the jet d'eau was at times extremely beautiful, the water being so broken as to form a snow-white and opaque pillar, surrounded by a fine vapour in which, during sunshine, beautiful rainbows were observed ".
It is an isolated outpost of the Inner Hebrides archipelago composed of Lewisian gneiss, formed in the Precambrian eon, these rocks being amongst the most ancient rocks in Europe. A further hazard to shipping is a magnetic anomaly in the area.
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. 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.