Fastnet Lighthouse

The Fastnet Lighthouse is a lighthouse situated on the remote Fastnet Rock in the eastern reaches of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the most southerly point of the island of Ireland, and lies south-west of Cape Clear Island and from County Cork on the mainland of the Republic of Ireland. The current lighthouse is the second to be built on the rock, and is the tallest in Ireland.

First lighthouse Construction of the first lighthouse began in 1853, and it first produced a light on . The lighthouse replaced an early one built on Cape Clear Island in 1818, partly motivated by the loss of an American sailing packet, Stephen Whitney, in thick fog during November 1847 on nearby West Calf Island, causing the death of 92 of her 110 passengers and crew. The new lighthouse was constructed of cast iron, with an inner lining of brick, and was designed by George Halpin. Costing £17,390, the tower was tall with an lantern structure on top, giving a total height of around . It had an oil-burning lamp of 38 kilocandelas; in contrast, modern lighthouses typically produce 1,300 kilocandelas. In 1883, an explosive fog signal was installed, which electrically detonated a small charge of guncotton every five minutes.

The tower proved to be too weak, since gales shook it to the point that crockery was sometimes thrown off tables, and at one point, a cask of water lashed to the gallery above high water was washed away. Various steps were taken to strengthen the tower, including fitting a casing around the bottom section up to the second floor, and filling it with stone, and the surrounding rock smoothed over. In 1865, the lower floors were filled in with solid material.

Second lighthouse In 1891, the Commissioners of Irish Lights had resolved that the light was not sufficiently powerful, particularly for the first landfall for many ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The replacement was constructed of stone, cast iron now being considered unsatisfactory; the whole of the nearby Calf tower above its strengthening casing was carried away during a gale on 27 November, 1881, although without loss of life. On the same day, the sea broke the glass of the Fastnet Rock lantern.

The new lighthouse was designed by William Douglass, and built under the supervision of James Kavanagh. Construction started in 1897, with the levelling of the site, and the first of 2,047 dovetailed blocks of Cornish granite was laid in June 1899. As well as these blocks, weighing in total, and with a volume of , a further of granite was used to fill the inside of the tower up to the level of the entrance floor, above high-water mark. A small steamship, the Ierne, was specially constructed for carrying the blocks out to the island, and Kavanagh personally set every stone, which weighed between . The new lighthouse entered service on , having cost nearly £90,000.

The masonry tower is high, but the focal point of the light is above high-water mark. The base of the lighthouse is in diameter, with the first course of stone below the high-water mark, and the first ten of the eighty-nine courses are built into the rock. The first floor of the original tower remains, on the highest part of the rock, having been left when it was demolished and converted into an oil store.

The fog signal was changed to one report every three minutes in 1934, and from 1965, accompanied by a brilliant flash when operated during darkness. The original vaporised paraffin light was replaced with an electric one on . At the end of , the lighthouse was converted to automatic operation. It is monitored and controlled using a ultra high frequency (UHF) telemetry link to Mizen Head Lighthouse in County Cork, and onwards by landline to the Irish Lights control centre at Dún Laoghaire.

It produces a 0.14 second white flash every five seconds, with a nominal range of , and a power of 2,500 kilocandelas. Since , in addition to being operated during darkness, the light is also used during poor visibility. In 1974, the explosive fog signal was replaced with an electric fog-horn, producing four blasts every minute at , with a nominal range of . Following a review of navigational aids, the fog signal was permanently shut down on . The racon (radar transponder beacon) has transmitted the Morse code for the letter G since its installation in 1994.

In 1985, the lighthouse was struck by a rogue wave about high.

Fastnet Rock

Fastnet Rock (), or simply Fastnet, is a small clay-slate islet with quartz veins, situated off the south-western coast of Ireland. It rises to about above the low water mark, and is separated from the much smaller Little Fastnet rock to the south by a channel. Fastnet is sometimes known as 'Ireland's Teardrop', because it was the last part of Ireland that some 19th-century Irish emigrants saw as they sailed to North America.

Shipping Forecast 'Fastnet' also gives its name to the sea area used by the Shipping Forecast, supplied by the United Kingdom Met Office, on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), transmitted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Fastnet Race Fastnet Rock is used as the mid-point of one of the world's classic offshore yachting races, the Fastnet Race, a route, leaving from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, around the rock, and returning to Cherbourg in France (before 2021, to Plymouth). It is also sometimes used as a mark for yacht races from local sailing centres such as Schull, Baltimore, and Crookhaven.

Fastnet Lighthouse

Bron en licentie