Tiumpan Head (Scottish Gaelic:Rudha Tiompan) is the end of the Eye peninsula on Lewis. A lighthouse has marked the western limit of The Minch since 1900.
| Tiumpan Head Lighthouse | |
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| Location | Eye peninsula, Lewis |
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| Coordinates | |
| Year first lit | 1900 |
| Automated | 1985 |
| Height | 21 metres (69 ft) |
| Focal height | 55 metres (180 ft) |
| Range | 25 nautical miles |
| Characteristic | Gp Fl.(2) W 15 sec |
| Fog signal | discontinued |
The idea for a lighthouse in the village of Portvoller in Point, Isle of Lewis was long promoted, but refused for a long period by the Board of Trade. After a recommendation by the Western Highlands and Islands Commission to additionally keep a watch on illegal trawlers, it was approved in May 1879.[1]
The lighthouse and building were designed by David and Charles Stevenson and built by John Aitken, at an estimated cost of £9000. William Frew was appointed as inspector of works. Chance Brothers made the optics and Dove and Co. the revolving machine. The light was first exhibited on 1 December 1900.
Six lightkeepers were attached to the station, three lightkeepers and their families at the station, with a local assistant and two occasional lightkeepers coming in from Portnaguran village nearby.
Elizabeth II visited the lighthouse in 1956, with the young Duke of Cornwall and the Princess Anne. The seven-year-old heir to the throne sounded the first blast on a new fog siren. The fog signal was operated by compressed air supplied from a compressor, driven by a Kelvin Diesel Engine. There were three Kelvin engines and compressors, and when the fog signal was in operation, two of them were in service to maintain the required air pressure with one standby, in rotation. In 1984, the fog signal was discontinued and the fog horn building was demolished.
The lighthouse was automated in 1985 and is monitored from Edinburgh. The former keepers' accommodation is no longer needed and is now home to kennels and a cattery.[2]