Dubh Artach
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  Map sources for Dubh Artach at grid reference NM119030
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Dubh Artach (pronounced [duː ˈartax]) is a remote skerry of basalt rock off the west coast of Scotland.The skerry lies 18 miles west of Colonsay and 15 miles south-west of the Ross of Mull. A lighthouse designed by Thomas Stevenson was erected in 1872. Dubh Artach is the official name of the lighthouse, although the skerry itself is also known as Dhu Heartach. There is no clear consensus as to the root of the name although it is evidently Irish or Scottish Gaelic in origin.
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[edit] Geology
In pre-historic times Dhu Heartach was covered by the ice sheets which 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 lower than at present.[1] Although the isostatic rise of land makes estimating post-glacial coastlines a complex task, circa 14,000 BP it is likely that Dubh Heartach was at the western edge of a large land bridge linking what is now the island of Ireland to Scotland. This land mass probably included the islands of Jura and Islay and was connected to the mainland of Scotland by an isthmus near Loch Craignish south of Oban.[2]
Steadily rising sea levels would then have slowly isolated and finally all but submerged Dhu Heartach, which today is a rounded, dark green mass of basaltic rock called augite, which is 240 feet long and 130 feet wide, and which rises to 35 feet above sea level.[3] Submarine surveys indicate that the rock is at the eastern end of a valley stretching 80 miles into the Atlantic, which may “account for the seemingly abnormal seas to which the tower is subjected".[4] It is an isolated outpost of the Inner Hebrides archipelago. The author Robert Louis Stevenson wrote:
An ugly reef is this … one oval nodule of black-trap ... and alive in every crevice with a dingy insect between a slater and a bug. No other life was there but of sea-birds, and of the sea itself, that here ran like a mill-race, and growled about the outer reef for ever, and ever and again, in the calmest weather, roared and spouted on the rock itself".[5]
[edit] Name
The meaning of the Celtic names Dhu Heartach and Dubh Artach is far from clear. Dubh is certainly "black", and Artach is an Irish personal name which is the root of the second part of the Irish surname Dubhartaigh ("Black Artach") which is anglicised to Dooherty.[6] However, the similarity between this surname and the current spelling Dubh Artach may be a case of folk etymology. Some etymologists believe that the name derives from an uibh-hirteach, meaning "The Black One of Death". Adamnan in his 7th century Life of St Columba calls the rock A'Dubh-Iar-stac, "The Black Stack of the West".[7]
The chiefs of Clan MacPhee, whose name is derived from the Irish Dubthaigh or Dubhthaigh via McDuffie, settled on the nearby islands of Colonsay and Oronsay.[8] Dubthaigh means either "Dark (or Black) Man" or "The One from the Dark House", although the similarities between the two original Irish names may be co-incidental. The Devil is commonly known in the Highlands of Scotland as Black Donald and given Stevenson's description (above) there may also be a resonance here.
[edit] Planning and construction of the lighthouse
Between 1800 and 1854 thirty ships were wrecked on the reef.[9] However, the requirement for a lighthouse was not only to warn seafarers away from Dhu Heartach itself, but also to guide them past the fearsome Torran Rocks, which lie between the Ross of Mull and Colonsay. Originally it was considered to be an impossible site for a light, but the loss of 24 vessels in the area in a storm on 30-31 December 1865 encouraged positive action under pressure from insurers Lloyds of London.[9] The engineering work was supervised by the famous Stevenson family of engineers, the brothers Thomas (father of Robert Louis) and David commencing work in 1866.[3] Thomas noted that "it would be a work of no ordinary magnitude".[9]
The land base for the construction of the light was Erraid near Iona. Fourteen miles distant from Dhu Heartach across open sea, the little island provided a granite quarry and a shore station once the work on the lighthouse was completed. Initial construction, which began in 1867 under the supervision of Alan Brebner, required a barrack for the workmen made of iron. Summer gales brought high seas, which resulted in breaking water falling on the roof 77 feet above sea level. It held firm, although fourteen men including Brebner were trapped for five days, and at one point seawater poured in through the trapdoor, swirled around them and exited with their remaining food supplies.[9] Describing a similar occasion, R. L. Stevenson wrote:
The men sat high up prisoned in their iron drum, that then resounded with the lashings of the sprays... It was then that the foreman builder, Mr. Goodwillie, whom I see before me in his rock-habit of indecipherable rags, would get his fiddle down and strike up human minstrelsy amid the music of the storms".[5]
Despite these hardships a 36 foot diameter foundation pit was excavated and by 1869 a solid portion of tower rising 32 feet above foundation level had been completed. This was no mean feat. On one occasion eleven two-ton stones were dislodged from the third course of stonework and carried off the rock, never to be seen again.[3][10]
The solid base weighing 1,840 tons rises more than 64 feet above the pounding seas, more than twice as high as its nearest British rival of Skerryvore. The blocks, having been shaped and fitted on Erraid, were towed out to the rock in barges by the steamer ‘Dhuheartach’ each barge carrying 16 tons. Masonry work was completed in 1871 and the lantern, optical apparatus and fog bell installed the following year, Dubh Artach becoming the first isolated rock light in Britain to use paraffin. The finished tower rises 101 feet above the foundation in seventy-seven courses of stonework all told.[10]
The total cost of the works undertaken by the Northern Lighthouse Board was £65,784, excluding the £10,300 cost of establishing the shore station on Erraid.[10].
[edit] Early operations
Dubh Artach Lighthouse
| Location | Dhu Heartach skerry 18 miles west of Colonsay, Argyll, Scotland |
|---|---|
| Tower height | 44 m (145 ft) |
| Characteristics | Two White Flashes every 30 secs |
| Description | White, circular tower with red horizontal band |
| Date established | 1872 |
| Date of present tower | 1872 |
| Date automated | 1971 |
| Current use | Active aid to navigation |
| Engineers | Thomas and David Stevenson |
| Open to the public | Grounds only. Landings by sea are likely to be hazardous if not impossible. |
Completion of the construction work did not result in an end to the hazards. At low tide the landing stage is forty feet above a boat, yet not completely out of the reach of the swell. Landings other than via the precarious use of dangling ropes from a derrick were most unusual even on calm days.[3] The storm seas could rise to extraordinary heights. In the first year of operation, the copper lightening conductor was wrenched out of its sockets by a storm at a height of 92 feet above high water.[10]
The first principal keeper was James Ewing who looked after the light for the next eleven years. Despite the exceptionally adverse conditions faced by the keepers, which resulted in them receiving additional payments in kind, Ewing was not the only one who served the light for a decade or more.[3][10] However, some found the lonely rock and its cramped quarters less to their taste. One had to be prevented from diving into the sea and attempting to swim ashore.[9]
[edit] Later events
In 1874 the principal keeper reported an incident which suggested that the rock had experienced an earth tremor but the tower stood fast.[9]
In 1890 a distinctive red band was painted on the exterior to distinguish it from Skerryvore, 20 miles to the northwest, which was served from the same shore station.[3]
A dispute concerning the financing of lighthouses led to an 1898 visit to Dubh Artach of some prominent persons, including the President of the Board of Trade and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Michael Hicks Beach.
The name of the lighthouse was changed in 1964 from Dhuheartach to the present form Dubh Artach.[7]
The lighthouse was fully automated in 1971 and the following year a helipad was constructed to enable maintenance work to be undertaken without the need for perilous sea landings.[10]
[edit] References
- ^ Pennington, W. (1969) History of British Vegetation.
- ^ Murray, W.H. (1973) The Islands of Western Scotland. London. Eyre Methuen.
- ^ a b c d e f Nicholson, Christopher. (1995) Rock Lighthouses of Britain: The End of an Era? Caithness. Whittles.
- ^ Stevenson, D.A. (April 25th 1876) The Dhu Heartach Lighthouse. Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng.
- ^ a b Stevenson, R.L. (1887) Memories and Portraits. Chatto and Windus.
- ^ BBC Northern Ireland
- ^ a b Northern Lighthouse Board
- ^ Clan Macduffie Society. (No date provided) The Early History of Clan Macduffie. Solihull. Morgan Publications. [1]
- ^ a b c d e f Bathhurst, Bella. (2000) The Lighthouse Stevensons. London. Flamingo.
- ^ a b c d e f Munro, R.W. (1979) Scottish Lighthouses. Stornoway. Thule Press.
[edit] External links
| Islands of the Hebrides |
|---|
| Inner Hebrides |
| Ascrib Islands | Canna | Cara | Coll | Colonsay | Crowlin Islands | Easdale | Eigg | Gigha | Iona | Isay | Islay | Jura | Kerrera | Lismore | Luing | Lunga | Oronsay | Muck | Mull | Raasay | Rùm | Seil | Shuna | Skye | Soay | Staffa | Summer Isles |Tiree |
| Outer Hebrides |
| Barra (Isles) | Benbecula | Berneray | Eriskay | Flannan Isles | Great Bernera | Harris and Lewis | North Uist | Rockall | Scalpay | South Uist | St Kilda |
