Eilean Musdile

Lismore / Eilean Musdile

The lighthouse on Eilean Musdile looking north from the Oban to Craignure ferry.
Location Firth of Lorne, Scotland
Coordinates 56°27.4′N 05°36.4′W / 56.4567°N 5.6067°W
Year first constructed 1833
Year first lit October 1833
Automated June 1965
Construction White tower
Height 26 metres
Focal height 31 metres
Intensity 71,000 candlepower
Range 17 miles (27 km)
Characteristic Flashing White every 10 secs

Eilean Musdile (Mansedale) is an islet, and lighthouse to the south west of Lismore in the Inner Hebrides.

The island lies in the entrance to Loch Linnhe, separated from Lismore by a sound ¼ miles across.[1] It is a low-lying rock, ten acres (4 ha) in size,[1] with some grass on it. CalMac ferries pass close to the island on their way from Oban to Mull.

The lighthouse was built by Robert Stevenson in 1833 at a cost of £4260[2] and initially showed a fixed white light.[1] In 1910 most of the Northern Lighhouse Board's lights were changed to dioptric or Fresnel lenses but Lismore and Fidra, in the Firth of Forth, were left as the only remaining purely catoptric lights in the service.[1]

A Standing Stone once stood on the highest point of the island (NM779351). The 9-foot (2.7 m) monolith appears to have recorded the midwinter sunset and is thought to have been removed during construction of the lighthouse.[3]

The skerry of Lady's Rock lies a short distance to the south west.

Footnotes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "History of Lismore Lighthouse". Retrieved 2008-11-01.
  2. "Lismore Lighthouse". Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
  3. "Eilean Musdile Standing Stone". The Northern Antiquarian. Retrieved 2008-11-01.

Coordinates: 56°27′22″N 5°36′15″W / 56.45611°N 5.60417°W