St John’s Point Lighthouse

in Places by Simon — September 7, 2010 at 10:32 am | 0 comments

There are a couple of St John’s Point Lighthouses in Ulster, but as beautiful as the Donegal one is, it is the County Down which sports the rather individual black and yellow colour scheme. Located at the northern tip of Dundrum Bay, the lighthouse started operation in 1844. Two years later, the captain of the SS Great Britain mistook the new lighthouse for the Chicken Rock Lighthouse on the Isle of Mann and ran aground on Dundrum Bay. The captain later blamed out-of-date sea charts for the accident. The SS Great Britain had been built by the ever industrious and entrepreneurial Isambard Kingdom Brunel and he wasn’t going to give up on his ship. He travelled to the scene and commenced a huge and successful operation to refloat the ship.

At 45 feet in height (a total of 62 feet above sea level) and fitted with a whale-oil burning lamp, St John’s Point Lighthouse was later improved by increasing its height to 102 feet. Various upgrades to the light have been made over the years, first to gas powered lamps, then to paraffin and most recently to electricity. The distinctive colour scheme, black with two yellow bands, was painted in 1954. More information can be found at the Commissioners of Irish Lights.

Tags: County Down