Rock Lighthouses of Britain & Ireland by Christopher Nicholson

Rock Lighthouses of Britain & Ireland

Author: Christopher Nicholson



A much expanded new edition of the classic bestselling lighthouse book

Features over 300 illustrations and many dramatic photographs, in full colour

Foreword by HRH The Princess Royal, Patron of the Northern Lighthouse Board and Master of Trinity House
















Rock Lighthouses of Britain & Ireland is a new edition of the classic work on the subject but with some of the most famous Irish rock lighthouses included. The text has been updated to include the modern technology being used by the lighthouse authorities, as well as all the historical advances made over the centuries at British and Irish rock lights. This is complemented by scores of new and many stunning photographs as well as historic plans and drawings, many of them highly colourful and artistic, as used by the original lighthouse builders. At the end are comprehensive and detailed tables about all the rock lighthouses maintained by the three lighthouse authorities.

Building on the acclaim received for the earlier editions, it brings the history of these iconic structures completely up-to-date, from the days before the first granite block was laid, through their construction, automation, the disappearance of the lighthouse keeper, right up to today’s totally automatic operation.

These are some of the world’s most famous rock lighthouses, and their stories of men battling against Nature’s most powerful forces to build a structure designed to save lives on a seemingly impossible site. Rock Lighthouses of Britain & Ireland spans the centuries between the world’s first rock lighthouse on the Eddystone reef, to the very last rock lighthouse constructed in the traditional style – on Ireland’s Fastnet Rock – and accordingly it will remain the premier book about rock lighthouses.

Print edition: Softback
978-184995-544-7
297 x 210mm
320 pages
c. 350 illustrations (inc. 28 plans and 58 drawings), colour throughout