"Whenever I smell salt water, I know that I am not far from one of the works of my ancestors'. ′When the lights come out at sundown along the shores of Scotland, I am proud to think they burn more brightly for the genius of my father!" Robert Louis Stevenson 1880
Image of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. © Copyright Derek Robertson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
"Situated 11 miles out from Arbroath the Bell Rock Lighthouse was built 200 years ago by Robert Stevenson upon the infamous Inchcape reef. At high water the reef is hidden about 12 foot below the water level, at low water it is 4 foot above the sea".
It seems to me that Lighthouses are the most amazing structures ever built. Take the Bell Rock Lighthouse in Scotland for instance, I stumbled across this lighthouse in a book I read called, The Lighthouse Stevensons by Bella Bathurst. I picked up Bella's book in the local library thinking it was a fictional read, and as I started to read, I realised it was quite a wonderful true story. I have been fascinated with Bell Rock Lighthosue ever since. Later I was fascinated to watch 'Bell Rock' on The Seven Wonders of The Industrial Age where I viewed a reproduction of how the lighthouse was built. oh my goodness, what the men who built the lighthouse went through, to give the Scotish people safety in otherwise deadly, treacherous seas. Prior to it's construction, many ships sank, people perished, and their goods washed up on the nearby shores thanks to Bell Rock. Looking at the picture it isn't hard to realise why, when you think about the rock that supports the Lighthouse, granite, hard, unforgiving, once used to lurk just beneath the surface luring ships to their end.
Robert Louis Stevenson's father Robert Stevenson commenced building Bell Rock Lighthouse in 1807 was finished around 1810 and was finally lit on the 1st February 1811 - and to think it is still standing, with the waves that constantly buffet it. Amazing.
I wonder why we relate to Lighthouses so much and why we are drawn to them? The symbols of light to guide us to safety, or their steadfastness when the sea swamps them, yet they stand regardless... what do they represent to you?
Guess where I'd like to be on it's anniversary next year?
