Ireland

Ireland is the world's 20th largest island, measuring 488 kilometers (303 miles) long and 225 kilometers (140 miles) at its widest; if you could unravel its coastline it would stretch more than 3,219 kilometers (2,000 miles). We are fortunate to have some of the most beautiful coastal regions to be seen anywhere in the world. However, what is so attractive to native and visitor alike can be a major hazard to the seafarer.

In the annals of lighthouse history, the stories of certain lighthouses are related over and over. Certainly tales of the four Eddystones are known to most who study pharology. Famous construction projects like the Bell Rock and Skerryvore lighthouses of Scotland and California's St. George Reef are often mentioned. The lighthouse afficinado usually knows about the beautiful Corduan of France, or La Coruna (the Tower of Hercules) in Spain, the world's oldest. And of course the Pharos was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

In Ireland there is a small number of I unusual structures quite unlike lighthouses elsewhere. They consist of a stone-vaulted keeper's cottage containing some stairs leading up to a small platofrm on the roof on which was displayed an open fire; this could be of coal, wood or at times turf or peat. In most cases they stand on high headlands, but one example at low elevation was provided with a tower.

The oldest operational lighthouse in Ireland and the British isles is at Hook Head. The tower, with additions and modifications, dates from the Norman times, 12th century, and is reputed to be built on the site where the monks of St. Dubhan established a fire beacon in the 5th century.