Britain’s coastline is one of the highlighting features of our landscape. Seven-thousand miles long (nineteen-thousand if you include the islands). Hundred’s of stunning beaches, famous clifftops, bays and estuaries. An historic and thriving maritime culture and you’re never more than seventy-miles from this stunning environment.

But for those who make their lives on the sea, they know all to well the dangers that can be posed by the ocean waves and where the land, meets the sea. It’s an environment where Mother Nature is firmly in control, where unpredictability is the norm and as history has told us, disaster can strike in the harshest of circumstances. But, seafarers are not alone. There are guardians up and down our shores that have become staples of this landscape as much as the beaches, bays and cliffs. Beacons that warn of the danger. These are our lighthouses.

Situated in some of the most treacherous parts of our coastline, lighthouses have been guiding seafarers for centuries. Reefs, shoals, rocks - all the geological hazards that you wouldn’t want your vessel to strike are marked by these towers of light that are engineering marvels in their own right.

Lighthouses in England and Wales are looked after by Trinity House or to give its full title The Master, Wardens and Assistants of the Guild Fraternity or Brotherhood of the most glorious and undivided Trinity and of St Clement in the Parish of Deptford Strond in the County of Kent. Thankfully, they use the shorter title, on the most part, today! Founded by Royal Charter in 1514, Trinity House maintains sixty lighthouses as well as other navigational aids around England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar as the General Lighthouse Authority.

As with many traditional technologies, they have developed and adapted over time as new methods and equipment have become available, but despite the advent of new navigational aids such as radar and sonar, they continue to play an important role in maritime safety today. Once, lighthouse keepers would live in these wild and remote places to keep the lights shining in all conditions, but throughout the 1990s, most were automated and are now controlled from Trinity House’s operations centre in Harwich, Essex. Each lighthouse has it’s own identity, not only in its design but through to details such as the flash of the light itself. Different lighthouses will flash their lights in different patterns meaning that you could identify which lighthouse you’re looking at, simply by distinguishing the light pattern. But, when you visit a lighthouse, you quickly realise that it is not often the light itself that is the impressive part. In fact, most lighthouses only have small bulbs which is quite at odds at what you would expect. It’s the optics that do the heavy lifting, with different optical designs that intensify the light as well as direct it.

The Lizard Lighthouse, Cornwall *(with its 2nd Order four panel catadioptric optic)*

The development of LED (light emitting diode) technology has meant that modern navigational beacons tend to be significantly smaller in scale then traditional lighthouses as there is no need to house large amounts of machinery that was once needed to maintain pre-electric light, large rotating optics and also provide a home for the lighthouse keeper. But, we are immensely fortunate that in Britain, many of our most spectacular lighthouses are still very much operational and continue to warn mariners of hazards to this day. But, why are lighthouses still needed in an era of global positioning systems, satellite navigation and extensively mapped out coastlines? That’s because technology can fail and sometimes, the old methods can be the most reliable - especially where safety is concerned.

Whilst many of Britain’s lighthouse now stand solitary and quiet. They continue to be landmarks on our coast, inspiration for art and some have even become holiday destinations. You can now channel you’re inner Grace Darling by staying in one of the holiday cottages at lighthouses such as Lizard, Whitby and Cromer. These fascinating buildings with their epic locations, beautiful architecture and abundant history will continue guide seafarers for the years to come and draw in visitors and artistes alike, to some of Britain’s most picturesque coastlines.

Featured Lighthouses

Read more about just some of the lighthouses that I have captured on my journeys and have featured in this article below and yes, most of them are in Cornwall! It’s a beautiful county and I’ll have much more on this soon.

Lizard Lighthouse, Cornwall

Located at the most southerly point in mainland Britain, the Lizard Lighthouse has a great affinity for me as it was a place that I visited on many occasions whilst camping and caravanning down in Cornwall. Plus, the small village of the same name, not far from the lighthouse, has an excellent pasty shop (Ann’s pasties, highly recommended)! Distinctive with this dual towers and constructed in 1752, it has been warning seafarers of its dangerous rocky coast ever since. Its light has a range of twenty-six nautical miles (nearly thirty miles) and was electrified in 1924 before the lighthouse keepers finally left in 1998. Back in the old days, you could head up the tower for a tour and before health and safety, you were able to step out onto the circular walkway just next to the light for spectacular panoramic views of the coastline.

Today, the coastline around the lighthouse is looked after by the National Trust. I recommend you park in the village and walk down the lovely path to the lighthouse before exploring the dramatic cliffs and coves. There is a wonderful walk down to the Old Lifeboat Station and the small shingle beach at the bottom, but first you can pause at the top and lookout for seals and other wildlife who call the waters around here home.

St. Anthony Lighthouse, Cornwall

Sitting at the foot of the Roseland Peninsular and where the Carrick Roads meet the English Channel, the St. Anthony Lighthouse has been guarding the busy port entrance to Falmouth since 1835. In fact, Falmouth Docks is the third largest natural harbour in the world and the deepest in Europe, servicing some of the largest ships and vessels for centuries. St. Anthony watches over a rocky outcrop known at the Manacles and has seen this coastline host historic sailing ships of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to warships of World War Two and now modern Goliath’s, private yachts and pleasure craft. In fact, during the Second World War the tower was painted in camouflage!

St. Anthony is now an unmissable landmark along this coast, where you can see it from the picture-postcard village of St. Mawes and across the water in Falmouth. The land around the lighthouse is owned by the National Trust and can be explored at any time of the year.

Pendeen Lighthouse, Cornwall

The Pendeen Lighthouse sits on a truly historic part of Cornwalls coast. This was once the front and centre of Britain’s industrial revolution, where earths valuable minerals like copper and tin were mined heavily, sold on and contributing to making Britain one of the richest nations in the world. The high cliffs around Pendeen would make it extremely difficult to spot some of the dangerous rocky outcrops in the area and after a number of vessels striking and sinking in this inhospitable seascape, Trinity House decided to construct the Pendeen Lighthouse in 1900. It’s 18,700 candela light can be seen from sixteen nautical miles with help from its 1st Order catadioptric fixed optic. If you look out to south-west from Pendeen, you will see the wild north Cornish coast and the chimney stacks of the many mines that once worked deep underneath the bedrock.

Trevose Head Lighthouse, Cornwall

Sitting high above the north coast of Cornwall, pretty much central in the county is the Trevose Head Lighthouse. Part of a chain of lighthouses guiding mariners down towards the busy Bristol Channel. The lighthouse was known for its unusual ‘trumpet shaped’ foghorn until this was replaced in the 1963, as the area is often blanketed by sea mist (or sea fret as it’s known locally). You may have thought that Pendeen had a powerful light at 18,700 candela - well Trevose’s light has a power of 127,000 candela! In 1995, the existing optic was slowed to change the character of the flash which now stands at one flash every seven point five seconds. This lighthouse is extremely easy to get to, not far from the popular destination of Newquay and has great access to the South West Coastal Path.

Godrevy Lighthouse, Cornwall

A photographers dream! Godrevy Lighthouse is stationed on an island just off the mainland and is undoubtedly one of the most picturesque parts of Cornwall. Though the competition for that mantle is fierce in a county where beauty is in every direction! Godrevy is a Cornish word meaning ‘little huts’ and the headland near to the lighthouse is an excellent place to see a sunset on a clear summers day. The area around the lighthouse is known as the Stones and has claimed many victims over the centuries, with stories of locals plundering goods from wrecked ships and the local Yeomanry being called in to stop the mass theft. Originally, two lighthouse keepers who spend two months on and one month off the island, looking after the light, with supplied being ferried from nearby St. Ives. The tower light was replaced in 2012 by a modern LED steel structure that sits adjacent to the original lighthouse.

Point of Ayr Lighthouse, Flintshire

The Grade II listed lighthouse at Talacre in North Wales was constructed in 1776 and sits overlooking the Dee Estuary which separates Wales from England, at the point where it meets the Irish Sea. The light has since long been extinguished, but its fifty-nine foot brick tower remains as local landmark. In 2009, a steel sculpture was erected on the lighthouse’s balcony, inspired by the ghostly sightings of the former lighthouse keeper. The structure is now privately owned and remains a hotspot for professional and amateur photographers alike.

The Seafarer’s Guardian