Former light house buildings, Copeland Island Bird Observatory, Light House Island, (off) Co Down

Largely ruined remains of an early 19th-century lighthouse and lighthouse keepers' dwellings, located on the northeast of Light House Island, one of the Copeland Islands approximately 6 kilometres off the northeast coast of County Down. The complex was abandoned around 1888 and two of the former dwellings were later converted to a hostel for birdwatchers. The island is now designated as an Area of Special Scientific Interest due to its importance for breeding seabirds and waders.

The entire complex sits within a walled enclosure entered via a vehicle gateway on the west side. This gateway features tall square pyramidal-capped pillars and a flat arch, though no gates remain. The pillars and tall enclosure walls are harled.

On the south side of the enclosure stands a single-storey U-shaped building, originally comprising two dwellings but considerably altered and extended in recent times to serve as a hostel for birdwatchers. It has a shallow pitched gabled roof of corrugated metal and rendered walls, with modern timber-framed windows, most appearing to be recent insertions. Immediately north of this building, enclosed within the U-shape, is a large single-storey structure with harled walls and a similarly shallow-pitched roof. Further north, on higher ground, stands the circular stump of the former lighthouse, constructed in dressed granite, with scattered blocks from the dismantled shaft piled around it.

On the north side of the enclosure is a ruined rectangular one-and-a-half-storey gabled building with a shallow projection to the southeast corner. Originally containing a pair of semi-detached dwellings, possibly later used as a store, it features harled walls with small flat-arched windows and flat-arched doorways. Much of its stone-built roof has collapsed, including the northeast corner, which once supported a platform holding a large brazier—the original 18th-century 'lighthouse'.

Immediately west and northwest of the enclosure is a large rectangular area surrounded by a low rubble wall, believed to be a former garden, with a gateway at its southeast corner. Northeast of the main enclosure are the concrete foundations of a World War II radar mast, now dismantled. Close to the south coast of the island stand the ruins of a small rectangular rubble-built dwelling, said to have once served as a public house of sorts.

According to historical records, the first lighthouse on the island was erected in 1711, consisting of a coal beacon in an iron brazier set atop a three-storey tower. In 1796 this was replaced with a six-foot diameter glass-paned lantern fitted with six Argand lamps burning sperm oil, each magnified by a parabolic reflector. This revised lighthouse, forty-four feet high at an elevation of almost seventy feet, came into operation in 1796. In 1810, control of Ireland's lighthouses passed from the Revenue Board to the Corporation for Improving the Port of Dublin (the Ballast Office). One of its first decisions was to construct a new fifty-two foot lighthouse on Light House Island close to the original structure. Work commenced in 1813, and the new light, equipped with twenty-seven oil-burning lamps set in silvered reflectors and standing 131 feet above high water with a visible range of sixteen miles, came into operation on 24 January 1815.

The 1834 Ordnance Survey map shows the present enclosure, large walled garden, and the so-called public house to the south. The building on the south side of the enclosure was slightly larger at this date, having a projection at the northwestern corner, whilst the shed immediately to its north had not yet been constructed. The lighthouse itself is shown as a circular plan marked 'Lighthouse', with the legend 'Base of Light' beside the building at the northern end.

The 1835 valuation records the complex as comprising a house for two keepers and their families measuring 69 feet by 20 feet by 7½ feet, a house return of 15½ by 21½ by 7½ feet, three offices (outbuildings) of 21 by 12½ by 6 feet, 15 by 8 by 4½ feet, and 15 by 8 by 4½ feet, another house return of 15½ by 21½ by 7 feet, two oil stores of 63 by 23½ by 8 feet and 27 by 12 by 6 feet, and the lighthouse itself at 60 feet in circumference. Most of these buildings were classed as newly built in the valuation, suggesting they were erected with the new lighthouse in 1813–15, though the presence of the 'Base of Light' on the map indicates the old tower from the 1700s survived in some form. The 1858–60 revised Ordnance Survey map shows the buildings present with an additional freestanding structure northwest of the enclosure within the walled garden. The lighthouse continued in operation until the mid-1880s, when its function was superseded by a new lighthouse on the neighbouring Mew Island. The complex appears to have been abandoned by 1888, as it does not appear in subsequent valuation records, and the lighthouse itself was largely dismantled to avoid confusion with the new facility.

In the 20th century, Light House Island became a haven for breeding seabirds and waders and a favourite location for ornithologists. In the later 1900s the old keepers' dwellings were converted for use as a hostel for birdwatchers. In 2004 the island was designated an Area of Special Scientific Interest.