The Point of Ayre Light house

3-star-status Member Posts: 3409 Joined: 2006-11-09

Point of Ayre Lighthouse

The Point of Ayre Lighthouse was built to a design by Robert Stevenson in 1815, but following delays it was first lit on 9 March 1818. It lies on a sandy common about 500m from the shore. The tower is 99ft tall and 103ft above the high water mark.

A second, 34ft tower was built in 1891 close to high water mark as the shore shelves steeply and ships can come very close to land. In 1950 and extension was built.

for more information go to

Isleofmanlighthouses

Edited by Gillian 28th January 2009

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Smith, Nuttall, Ingham,McDermott and more

so near and yet so far

Subject: Re: The Point of Ayre Light house Wed 2 Sep 2009 - 21:10

I'll re-post some of my dad's own "Point of Ayre" photos on this topic soon. In the meantime - this is from the Geograph-Uk site......

Lighthouse, Point of Ayre, Isle of Man
© Copyright Dr Neil Clifton and licensed for
reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Further information kindly provided by Dr Neil Clifton
with the above image at the Geograph.org.uk site:

Quote:

This lighthouse was built in 1818 and was the first lighthouse on the Isle of Man. It was built and designed by Robert Stevenson (grandfather of the author Robert Louis Stevenson). The other small lighthouse down on the beach was built in 1890, and is commonly referred to as a 'Winkie'.

The Winkie had to be built due to the accretion of shingle banks on the beach, because since the big lighthouse was built in 1818, the beach at Point of Ayre had grown outwards quite some distance due to tidal effects. In fact the Winkie when built stood about 250 metres south west of where it stands today. It had to be moved north-east to its current location as recently as 1953, again due to the beach extending away from the big light.
[I am indebted to Drew James for this detailed information]. Dr Neil Clifton

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Nothing is too small to know, and nothing too big to attempt (William Van Horne)