Assembling Skerryvore Lighthouse

Skerryvore Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse in Scotland, and it took a lot of stone to build- over 4,000 individual pieces. It sits in a brutal environment, with waves frequently crashing over it. The reasons it has defied the elements for more than 180 years are clever design and the sheer weight of the building—provided all the pieces fitted together perfectly.

The lighthouse’s engineer Alan Stevenson used local stone at first, but switched to pink granite from Mull because it was easier to shape.

The raw stones were unloaded at the Hynish pier, and taken to the workshop using sling-carts pulled by a horse. Originally designed by the army to move cannons, sling-carts had large wheels so that the blocks could be suspended below the axles. A mason then set to work to cut the block carefully down to size with a variety of hammers of different sizes, dressing picks and chisels. To guide the work, each stone had an individual wooden mould. Simple stones took around 10 hours to make; the most complicated 320 hours, the equivalent of a month’s work.

Every stone was marked with two numbers: one for the course (1–97) and another its position. The blocks were then caried by the sling-cart to an assembly platform at the back of the workshop to make sure all the stones fitted together perfectly before they were shipped off to the rock.

Stevenson was a hard taskmaster. He insisted that the masons carved the blocks to an accuracy of one thirtieth of an inch or one millimetre. When the light was fitted, it was almost exactly at the height he had predicted.

Contributed by local historian Dr John Holliday on behalf of the Hynish Trust

Image: Extract from Alan Stevenson 'Account of the Skerryvore Lighthouse' 1848, including a drawing of one of the many types of tool the stonemasons used to carve and shape the individual stones.

If you are lucky enough to be exploring Hynish Shore Station in person, then the next story on the tour is 'A fire at Skerryvore.'