West Keeper's Cottages, Tarbatness Lighthouse is a Grade A listed building in the Highland local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 25 March 1971. Lighthouse, keeper's cottages.

West Keeper's Cottages, Tarbatness Lighthouse

WRENN ID
hidden-quartz-peregrine
Grade
A
Local Planning Authority
Highland
Constituency
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP: Jamie Stone (LD)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
25 March 1971
Type
Lighthouse, keeper's cottages
OS grid reference
NH 946 875
Coordinates
57.86504, -3.77688
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

West Keeper's Cottages at Tarbatness Lighthouse were designed by Robert Stevenson in 1830 and rebuilt in 1892. The structure features a tall circular tower set on a semi-circular base, topped with a triangular paned lantern and a domed roof. The tower has a corbelled parapet and is constructed of painted tooled ashlar, with painted broached dressings and contrasting painted margins and banding.

The cottages are a pair of flat-roofed, single-storey, semi-detached buildings, each consisting of four bays. They are harled, with contrasting painted window sills, a base course, and a parapet. The centre windows are paired and flanked by slightly projecting corniced entrance bays. There are also slightly lower single-bay stores with flat roofs set back at the east and west gables. These stores feature a low parapet with painted detailing to imitate crenellation, and some of the original 12-pane glazing remains.

The site is enclosed by a whitewashed rubble wall topped with rounded dressed stone coping.

Local climate

West Keeper's Cottages, Tarbatness Lighthouse receives an average of 870 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 62% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 79% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 40 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 78% of listed buildings. Of these, 27 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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