Esha Ness Lighthouse, Esha Ness

Esha Ness Lighthouse is a complex built between 1925 and 1929 by the Northern Lighthouse Board to designs by David Alan Stevenson and Charles Stevenson. It stands on an isolated coastal clifftop on the Northmavine peninsula of Shetland Mainland, sited to warn seafarers of the point of Eshaness and the hazards of the Ve Skerries, a rocky reef located 16 kilometres to the southwest.

The complex comprises a light tower, a former keeper's cottage, and ancillary outbuildings. All structures are constructed of concrete with harled walls and painted dressings, except for the sundial and gateposts. The main buildings share a deep basecourse. The light tower is a three-stage battered square building approximately 12 metres in height with a single storey double-skin brick-built flat-roofed entrance porch to the north. Metal railings (later replacements) enclose the tower wall-head around the lantern, which features an octagonal parapet with triangular glazing and an octagonal roof with a ventilator on top.

The keeper's cottage is a four-bay single storey flat-roofed building attached to the north-western corner of the tower. It has been subdivided to separate the main accommodation from a lighthouse technician's mess next to the tower. To the south stands a second four-bay single storey flat-roofed building referred to in Northern Lighthouse Board plans from 1975 as 'stores', probably the former generator house. It is connected to the main building by a harled wall on the west side. To the north is a square water tank building with doors to a store on the south side and an iron water tank above, lacking the expressed base course of the tower and keeper's cottage.

Windows are mainly 12- and 8-pane timber sash and case type, with wooden plate glass timber sash and case windows in the upper stages of the tower and vertically-boarded timber doors throughout. Cast-iron ogee gutters and downpipes with semi-octagonal hoppers and decorative brackets appear on both main buildings. The main building has harled and coped stacks with circular chimney cans.

To the east of the main buildings stands a sundial mounted on a cast-iron plinth approximately 1 metre high. The entrance lies to the east of the main building, accessed via two gates with wrought-iron ball-finalled gateposts, one for vehicles (a modern galvanised steel replacement) and one for pedestrians (also later).

Internal images from 2015 show that although the keeper's cottage has been remodelled, subdivided, and updated, the layout shown on engineering plans from 6 June 1925 remains largely intact. The interior retains surviving early 20th century features including wooden doors and wooden window shutters. The interiors of the stores (former generator house) and technician's mess have not been inspected as of 2020.

The lighthouse replaced an earlier temporary acetylene-gas powered light placed at Eshaness in 1915 at the request of the Admiralty. This earlier light was removed at the end of the First World War. Around 15 vessels were lost on the Ve Skerries reef during the 18th and 19th centuries before the lighthouse became operational, though the new light did not prove entirely effective; an Aberdeen trawler was lost on the reef in 1930.

The original light burned acetylene gas produced on site. It was converted to electrical power and automated in 1974, with the original Fresnel lens replaced by sealed-beam electric lamps. In 1979, a lighthouse was built on Ve Skerries itself as part of a Shetland area lighthouse improvements programme connected with increased oil-tanker traffic associated with Sullom Voe oil terminal. Esha Ness served as a construction site for this light.

Esha Ness Lighthouse remains operational as an automated light. The keeper's cottage has been updated and operates as a holiday let as of 2020. The water tank is no longer in use following the provision of mains water to the property.