Tiumpan Head Lighthouse

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Tiumpan Head Lighthouse

Tiumpan Head Lighthouse

Location	Tiumpan Head, Point, Lewis
Coordinates	58°15′40.62″N 6°8′16.26″W / 58.2612833°N 6.1378500°W / 58.2612833; -6.1378500Coordinates: 58°15′40.62″N 6°8′16.26″W / 58.2612833°N 6.1378500°W / 58.2612833; -6.1378500
Year first lit	1900
Automated	1985
Height	21 metres (69 ft)
Focal height	55 metres (180 ft)
Range	25 nautical miles (46 km; 29 mi)
Characteristic	Gp Fl.(2) W 15 sec
Fog signal	discontinued

The idea for the Tiumpan Head Lighthouse in the village of Portvoller in Point, Isle of Lewis was long promoted, but refused for many years 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.^{[citation needed]}

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]

Footnotes

↑ "Tiumpan Head". Northern Lighthouse Board. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
↑ "Tiumpan Head". Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 15 January 2011.

v t e Lighthouses of the Northern Lighthouse Board

Scotland (except principal island groups)	Ailsa Craig Ardnamurchan Bass rock Bell Rock Buchan Ness Cape Wrath Chanonry Corsewall Covesea Skerries Crammag Head Davaar Duncansby Head Dunnet Head Fidra Fife Ness Girdle Ness Holy Island (Outer) Inchkeith Isle of May Kinnaird Head Mull of Galloway Mull of Kintyre North Rona Noss Head Pladda Rattray Head Rubh Re St Abbs Head Sanda Scurdie Ness Stoer Head Strathy Point Stroma Sule Skerry Tarbat Ness Turnberry Minor lights

The Hebrides	Barra Head Butt of Lewis Dubh Artach Eilean Glas Flannan Islands Haskeir Hyskeir Lismore Monach Neist Point Ornsay Rinns of Islay Rona Ruvaal Scarinish Skerryvore Tiumpan Head Ushenish Minor lights

Orkney	Auskerry Brough of Birsay Cantick Head Copinsay Hoy Sound (High) Hoy Sound (Low) North Ronaldsay Noup Head Pentland Skerries Start Point Tor Ness Minor lights

Shetland	Bressay Eshaness Fair Isle North Fair Isle South Firths Voe Foula Hoo Stack Lighthouse Muckle Flugga Out Skerries Point of Fethaland Sumburgh Head Ve Skerries Minor lights

Isle of Man	Chicken Rock Douglas Head Langness (minor light) Maughold Head Point of Ayre Thousla Rock (minor light)

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