Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB05/16/016

Address :
Rathlin West Light Keeble Td Rathlin Island Co. Antrim

Townland:
Keeble

---

Survey 2:
A

Date of Listing:
25/05/2017 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Light House/ Navigation Mark

Former Use
Light House/ Navigation Mark

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
Yes

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

---

OS Map No:
03-01

IG Ref:
D0927 5178

---

Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

A lighthouse tower, lantern, former engine house, oil store, fog signal house, ancillary buildings, water tanks platforms, glacis, entrance and perimeter railings, all erected by the Commissioners of Irish Lights in the period 1912-16. For descriptive purposes, the site will be described from bottom to top according to its vertical divisions. 1. Tower, lantern, platforms and store The tower stands six storeys high and formerly accommodated the lighthouse keepers and workmen. It is accessed from the engine house platform and the lantern and associated platforms, at the very bottom of the complex, via the tower's internal staircase. The entire building is built of mass concrete. Its flat roof is covered with a waterproof membrane, with a low parapet around. There are rendered chimneys along the roof's N and S sides, both with narrow string courses and oversailing caps. The roof oversails and is edged with a moulded bracketed cornice. The walls are painted white and have band-rusticated quoins. The tower's four lowermost floors are built against the vertical cliff, the fifth connects with the engine house, and only the top one is exposed on all four sides. The top floor is demarcated by a wide string course which continues eastwards as a cornice around the roof of the engine house. There is also a moulded cill course around the top floor. All the openings have flat heads; those to all but the top floor also have stucco architraves. All the floors except at top floor have a 2-over-2 sliding timber sash to each of their exposed sides (to light the main rooms). There are also smaller 2-over-2 sashes at the right-hand side of the S elevation (to light the landings) and ditto up the left of the N elevation (to light the half-landings). The only exceptions are (1) on the S elevation, the main windows on the second and third floors are 4-over-4 sashes and there is no ground floor landing window; and (2) on the N elevation there is no half-landing window between the second and third floors. The lantern sits at the base of the W side of the tower. It was positioned here, rather than at the top of the tower, to reduce the risk of its light being obscured by sea fog. The structure is of cast-iron construction, painted white, and sits atop a low 16-sided concrete black-painted base. The bottom half of the metal section is also 16-sided and around its top are circular ventilation holes, adjustable from inside. The only other opening on this section is a small projecting observation window on the cant facing W out to sea. The upper half of the lantern is circular. It is vertically divided into 16 sections, 12 of which are fenestrated with three rows of curved window panes facing N, W and S. The four rear segments (facing E into the tower)) are blanked off to prevent the beam from reflecting off the tower. A stage at cill level gives access around the windows for cleaning purposes. The stage is accessed from N and S by vertical steel ladders. There are also brackets on the window frame mullions to hold on. The lantern is surmounted by a conical metal roof topped by a raised ventilator with decorative wrought-iron finial which also doubles as a lightning conductor. Around the rim of the roof is an ogee cast-iron gutter which empties into a small down pipe at the back. The roof itself can be accessed via a vertical steel ladder from the top of the linking porch. There are circular hand- and foot rails affixed to the roof to enable safe access around for maintenance purposes. The tower and lantern are linked by a small mass concrete porch with flat-roof and painted timber door on its S elevation. N and S of the lantern are concrete platforms delineated to E by a high mass-concrete wall built against the vertical cliff face, and to W (seaward) by a single strand of wire rope on metal posts. The N platform has a red emergency light (in case the lantern lamp failed). At the N end of the S platform is a small flat-roofed concrete store with painted timber door on its N elevation. 2. Former engine house, platforms, tanks and store These features are on the next level up from the lantern platform and are accessed via the staircase up inside the tower and also by steps down the glacis or ramped platform. The former engine house abuts the tower's fourth floor on its E side. It is a single-storey/ two-bay building aligned NW-SE and is of reinforced-concrete construction. It has a flat roof covered with a waterproof membrane and has two small ventilators and a low parapet around. The painted walls have a slightly advanced base course, band-rusticated quoins, and moulded cornice. All openings have flat heads and stucco architraves. There are painted timber doors to its S, SW and NE sides, single windows to W, SW and SE, and three windows to NE. All window opes have 2-over-2 sliding timber sashes and concrete cills. A small timber lean-to shed abuts the NE elevation. There are platforms on the E and W sides of the engine house. A concrete wall runs along their W sides and a replacement modern steel railing runs along the E side of the E platform. At the N and S ends of the E platform is a small concrete water tank. There are also larger tanks directly behind the SE end of engine house. All stored water off the glacis for general purpose use and also for cooling the engines and for the central heating system (in later years). Drinking water came from a spring at the base of the glacis and was stored in a galvanised metal cistern (long removed). The four compressed-air tanks on this platform are also long gone. The W platform has a small flat-roofed concrete building at its SW end. It has a single painted timber door and is used for general storage purposes. 3. Glacis This shuttered mass-concrete structure is built against the 45-degree slope between the engine house platform and top platform. There are two sets of steps up the glacis. The first runs straight up from the engine house platform to a balcony on the glacis and has an intermediate landing. From the balcony three staggered staircases run diagonally up to the top platform. The first staircase has two-bar tubular metal railings on both sides, and the three staggered ones a railing to their outer edges. There is also a three-bar railing around the intermediate balcony. From the balcony, a concrete path also runs up the W side of the upper h of the glacis and then makes a dogleg turn to the S end of the oil store. A two-bar railing runs along the outside edge of this path. 4. Oil store, fog signal house and platform These buildings and structures are at the top level of the complex and accessed by a single-land unsurfaced track from the public road. The former oil store is situated at the top of the glacis, just below the top platform. It is a single-storey/ three-bay building aligned N-S with its principal elevating facing W. It is of reinforced-concrete construction throughout. The flat oversailing roof has five raised skylights (with modern metal grilles over), a two-bar tubular steel railing around, and three cast-metal downpipes along its W side. The S end has a double-leaf door, and the W elevation two doors and four windows. The doors are all painted timber and the windows have 2x3-pane metal frames with concrete cills and stucco architraves. The N end is blank, and the E elevation likewise as it is cut into the slope. A narrow walkway runs along the frontage. The fog signal house is at a slightly higher level than the oil store and projects north-westwards from the edge of the top platform. It is a single-storey/ single-bay reinforced-concrete building with flat roof. Its only opening is a double-leaf painted timber door on its SE elevation (no internal access). There is a narrow platform on the NW side of the building enclosed by a two-bar tubular metal railing A painted metal fog horn imported from elsewhere was mounted on a circular concrete plinth in 2015 for visitor display purposes. An original painted cast-iron compressed air pipe runs up the face of the glacis and into the base of the platform form the engine house below. The top platform is bounded along its W edge by a concrete wall. There is a gap in part of it (now glazed over) which was where goods and materials were hoisted up and down the glacis by means of a hand-operated winch mounted on the platform (long removed). Along the E side of the platform is a modern single-storey RSPB visitors' centre of stone, concrete and glass. The area between this and the edge of the platform has been newly concreted. 5. Entrance gates and perimeter fence An unsurfaced single-lane track runs SE from the top platform to the site entrance. This comprises a concrete wall and two square gate posts, all of rendered concrete. The premises are delineated by a two-bar tubular metal railing on concrete posts. Setting The West Light is located halfway up the side of the cliff at Bull Point, at the western tip of Rathlin Island. It is surrounded to N, W and S by inaccessible sea cliffs and to E by undulating moorland.

Architects

Scott, Charles William

Historical Information

The West Light was designed by Charles William Scott, Engineer to the Commissioners of Irish Lights from 1900 to 1930. The idea of a lighthouse hereabouts was first explored in 1902 but it was not until 1912 that actual construction work began. It was also necessary to build a pier and inclined tramway at Cooraghy, 1.2km SE, for the off-loading of construction materials delivered by boat (HB05/16/017) (MRA 003:075) and also a single-track to connect the two locations. Because of the height of Bull Point (over 100m above sea level), a conventional lantern at the top of the accommodation tower would have run the risk of being obscured by sea mist. The lighthouse was therefore erected halfway down the side of the cliff with the lantern at the base of the tower. Moreover, because of the limited space available around the tower and restricted access thereto, it was not possible to accommodate the lighthouse keepers' families and separate housing was therefore built at the East Light (HB05/16/010C and D). Locating the light on the headland also necessitated substantial engineering works, notably the re-profiling of the face of the cliff and facing it with a massive concrete glacis. Although building work was completed in 1916 (at a cost of £400,000), the First World War delayed the light's exhibition until 10 March 1919. The light is captioned 'West Lighthouse (red light revolving) on the 1922 OS map. On 15 July 1925, a diaphone (compressed-air) fog signal also came into operation - a 15-second blast every minute at times of low visibility. The compressed air was stored in four external metal tanks mounted on the platform to the north side of the engine house and piped up the face of the glacis to the signal house on the top platform. The engine house contained several Ruston & Hornsby engines which operated the compressors. The light initially used vaporised paraffin as an illuminant. The paraffin oil was stored in vertical cylindrical tanks in the oil store at the top of the glacis. The oil light was replaced by an electric lamp on 15 June 1986 and the Ruston & Hornsby hot-bulb engines superseded by Lister diesel engines linked to generators which charged batteries to power the lamp. The fuel was stored in the same tanks as were used for the paraffin oil. These tanks were latterly also used to store oil for the tower's central heating boiler. The character of the light is a 0.4-second red flash every five seconds across a 210 degree arc. It is 62m (204ft) above mean high water spring level and has a nominal range of 22 nautical miles (c.25 statute miles). In the event of the lamp and its back-up both failing simultaneously, there is also an emergency light at the edge of the lantern platform (0.5 sec red flash every 5 secs). On 17 April 1982, the diaphone fog signal was replaced by an electric one. This was triggered during misty conditions by a fog detector in the tower. This signal was eventually discontinued on 30 November 1995. Although the light originally operated only in the hours of darkness, henceforth it also operated in daylight at times of reduced visibility. The present fog horn is a recent import from elsewhere and was mounted in front of the fog signal house in 2015 for visitor display purposes (the original was inside the building). The lighthouse was de-manned on 30 November 1983 and became fully automated thereafter. It was initially monitored remotely from Rathlin East Light but this is now carried out from Irish Light's Dun Laoghaire headquarters. The premises are still looked after by a part-time Attendant. Mains electricity was installed in November 1996 and the engines and generators scrapped. In their place, a small Lister-Petter engine was installed in the now-defunct oil store to charge back-up batteries in case the mains supply failed. For a number of years, the engine room has been occupied by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds as a visitor exhibition space. The platforms either side of this building were also used by the public to observe the nesting birds on the cliffs. In 2015, a new visitor centre was built at the top of the glacis and the entire premises (with the exception of the interior of the lantern) opened up to the general public. This is a joint venture between irish Lights and RSPB (who now staff the building) as part of CIL's 'Great Lighthouses of Ireland' all-Ireland tourism initiative. References - Primary Sources: 1. PRONI OS/10/1/1/1/2. Second edition OS 1:2500 map, Co Antrim sheet 1-01 (1922). 2. PRONI VAL/3/D/1/3/N/2. Valuation revision notebook, p.109 (1932). 2. PRONI OS/11/3/3/1. First edition OS Irish-Grid 1:10,000 map sheet 3 (1971). References - Secondary sources: 1. Mr John McFaul, Irish Lights West Light Attendant. 2. Technical panel in lantern house. 2. Forsythe, W. And McConkey, R. 2012. Rathlin Island: An Archaeological Survey of a Maritime Landscape pp 306-307 and 418-419. Belfast, NIEA. 4. Bill Long, 1997. Bright Light, White Water: the Lighthouses of Ireland. Dublin, New Island Books, p.180. 5. Irish Lights website, .

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form E. Spatial Organisation F. Structural System G. Innovatory Qualities I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

Z. Rarity V. Authorship S. Authenticity T. Historic Importance W. Northern Ireland/International Interest Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

This lighthouse complex is unusually complete and retains all its original fabric. The tower is of architectural interest in terms of its utilitarian design enlivened with modest embellishment. The use of mass concrete for all the buildings and structures (except the lantern) was innovative for its day. The tower is peculiar (indeed now unique in N. Ireland) in having its sole lantern at its base rather than its top. The canted cast-iron construction and continuous fenestration of the lantern is also of functional and technical interest. The internal spaces largely retain their original character, whilst the vertical configuration of the rooms in the tower is typical of all lighthouses (each room originally having a different function and all linked by staircases). The West Light is testimony to the work of Charles William Scott, Irish Lights' Chief Engineer. It was, and still continues to be, of strategic economic value to maritime shipping. Its breathtaking situation halfway down a cliff is an integral part of its setting and it also has group value with Cooraghy Pier (HB05/16/017), and with the South Light (HB05/16/022), East Light and ancillary lighthouse buildings to the Eastern shore of Rathlin (HB05/16/10A-D). The West Light - still in use - is one of the finest intact examples of a 20th century lighthouse in Northern Ireland, and is therefore of particular special architectural and historical significance, and is of national importance.

General Comments

Date of Survey

05 August 2016