Fife Ness Lighthouse

Fife Ness Lighthouse

Fife Ness Lighthouse is a Grade B listed building designed by Peter H. Hyslop, engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board, and became operational in 1975. It stands on the point of Fife Ness, a prominent peninsula on the northern side of the shipping entrance to the Firth of Forth, positioned approximately 12 metres above sea level.

The lighthouse comprises a single rectangular brick building standing 5 metres high with a flat roof and rendered walls with painted dressings. The lantern is contained within a glazed extension to the engine room, which also houses a control room. The lantern framework consists of a concrete roof supported by large cantilevered concrete beams, together with painted astragals formed by extruded hollow stainless-steel tubes and welded bars, into which polycarbonate glazing has been fitted. The light faces north-east with an arc of approximately 240°, directed towards the Carr Rocks, a partially submerged reef extending around 2.5 kilometres out to sea from Fife Ness and a major navigation hazard at the mouth of the Firth of Forth. The lighthouse remains operational as of 2020.

Historical Context

The construction of Fife Ness Lighthouse represents the culmination of more than 150 years of efforts by the Northern Lighthouse Board to mark the treacherous Carr Rocks and safeguard shipping at the mouth of the Firth of Forth. During construction of the nearby Bell Rock Lighthouse, Robert Stevenson recorded the loss of sixteen vessels on the Carr Rock between 1800 and 1809. In response, the Northern Lighthouse Board anchored a floating buoy off the Carr in September 1809, but this frequently broke its mooring chain.

The board subsequently decided to replace the floating buoy with a tide-operated bell tower built from Fife sandstone. This proved unsuccessful, but a cast iron beacon was eventually completed in September 1821. Stevenson considered that beacons without a light or bell were inadequate for marking reefs to warn shipping, and he proposed that the situation might be improved by providing additional leading lights on the Fife mainland or the Isle of May. These proposals were not initially pursued on cost grounds, but in 1843–44, a low-level lighthouse was built on the Isle of May positioned so that when observed one above the other, the two May lights would indicate to mariners that they were in line with the Carr Rock to the north.

The North Carr Beacon alone did not prove sufficiently successful, and the first of a series of light vessels took up station at the North Carr in the 1880s. The last of these light vessels remained in service until 1975, when Fife Ness Lighthouse became operational. Fife Ness Lighthouse continues to mark Carr Rock in conjunction with a cardinal navigation buoy 1.5 kilometres to the east.