Old Higher Lighthouse With Boundary Walls

The Old Higher Lighthouse, now a dwelling, was built in 1869. It comprises a low circular tower linked by short corridors to the east and south with identical domestic blocks, which were formerly coastguard accommodation. The lighthouse is constructed with rendered and painted walls and slate roofs, set on a simple plinth. The tower has a cylindrical shaft to a heavy moulded cornice, supporting a lofty late 20th-century wooden and glass lantern set on a balcony with a 15-bay cast-iron balustrade consisting of heavy moulded posts and three plain rails. Various 2-light casements are set in deep reveals with cambered raised lintels and plain cills. The Trinity House badge is set into the north-west face at first-floor level. The connecting passages have pitched roofs with box eaves and incorporate 12-pane sashes with heavy stooled cills. Four large paired stacks rise from each ridge, with bases and stepped conjoined cappings. The domestic blocks also have stopped chamfer corners. Each unit includes a swept-down addition containing a door, with a porch and a 20th-century door to the north-south passage. The interior of the tower retains a heavy rivetted ring beam with radial supports at first and second-floor levels, a stone staircase with an iron balustrade following the curve from ground to first floor, and a tighter spiral of slate treads to the lantern. Much of the original joinery and fittings appear to have been carefully restored. The site is enclosed by a rubble stone wall with a half-round oversailing coping, and features a pair of square piers with pyramidal cappings on the southwest corner, opposite what was formerly a paraffin store, now a 20th-century studio dwelling. A stable building, previously associated with the property, was demolished in 1990. A lighthouse existed on the site from 1716; this was replaced in 1869, and decommissioned in 1905 with the opening of the new lighthouse. It was then sold for £405 in 1907. The property was occupied as a holiday home for about 30 years by Dr. Marie Stopes and is reputed to have been visited by Thomas Hardy in the early 20th century. The building was later derelict but was fully restored in the 1980s.