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Lighthouses

If you don't understand what a light house is used for and why its still needed, at least for now, then take a look at What are Lighthouses for, and if you don't realise that they may all be shut and how this could lead to major problems, then you may also find this at least interesting, if not a little scary.

Our articles include a look The Development of Lighthouses with more specific information looking at  Lighthouse Structure, explaining what all the parts are, and why they are where they are, plus Lighthouse Lights,  which looks at the means of providing light over time, the messages they give and the optics they use.

The three lighting authorities that are central to the development and running of our lighthouses, and we have articles on each of these, are:- Trinity House coming through history from the time of Henry VIII ,if not before, covering England, Wales, the Channel Isles and Gibraltar, the Northern Lighthouse Board  covering Scotland and the Isle of Man, and the Commissioners of Irish Lights,  covering the whole of Ireland. In the case of the first two we also cover their histories, while in the case of Ireland we have a separate article, History of Lighthouses in Ireland covering their history, but with additional historic information covering the time before they existed.

We also have information on Photographing Lighthouses and Staying in or by a lighthouse.

You will find we have more articles, and more are being worked on, so check the section or topic index occasionally to see what else we now have.

Plus we have inks to other sources in the Lighthouses Further Information  page.

You may have noticed that all the pages in this section, also have an extra quick navigation bar at the top. This gives you quick access to the interactive maps, main list and index pages, and for those who have arrived from a search engine, puts the pages back into the system layout, and makes everything available to them.

Photo by Mike Warren Burnham-on-Sea Low Lighthouse

Photo by Richard Harvey Hoy High Lighthouse

Sanda Lighthouse     Photo by Gordon Brown

How you can help us

We have found a lot of lighthouses, but there are more still to find, particularly those no longer in use, and while we are not going to try to list every single small light, we do want to add to the listings and where its of enough interest, create location guides on all the others we can find. So if you know of one we have not included please let us know.

We would also like to hear from you if you have more 'life experience stories' or know more facts about any of the lighthouses we have covered or others, as we can add this information, you will find quite a few snippets spread throughout the location guides now.

Do you see something we have wrong, or know a different version of a story or history, we try not to make judgements but to tell all we can find. Something that is wrong in one book can be read by someonelse and then repeated again and again, and become the generally accepted story, but be wrong. In the past on other projects he have found this happening all the time. Similarly the only way not to make mistakes in not to do anything, and as we do a lot, it logically means we will make a lot of mistakes, although we try to check and double check, proof etc to eliminate them. Over time many will come to light and we will get more and more accurate. Its a real help when people know local stories or have first hand experience, if they can assist us, even if at first is looks like more options or confusion.

We have access to a lot of photos, but some lighthouses we haven't found good photos of, do you have any?. We have put old photos in some location guides and will add more to some others, and we have access to an archive of old photos and are seeking out more, but do you have any, if so we would love to have copies of them.

Basically if you have anything, or know anything, then please let us have the chance to see it, on its own it may seem minor, but even the smallest fact can make something else make sense.

Please put links to this section in any lighthouse pages you have on a website, and add them to any other system you can. We have a special lighthouse doorway to allow those with an interest in lighthouses to enter our system from that point of view, and every page is individually able to be linked to, see the links from the bottom of every page on how to link to us.

Also please tell anyone who you feel may be interested, the Web is a great resource, but only if you can find the best resources available.

   Photo by Rainer Boettchers

Whiteford Lighthouse, Glamorgan