Kish Bank Lighthouse
| Kish Bank Lighthouse | |
| |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | O38293097 |
| Location: | 53°18’39"N, 5°55’33"W |
| Characteristics | |
| Height: | 102 feet |
| Tower shape: | telescopic cylindrical tower with four balconies, lantern and helipad |
| Light: | Fl (2) 20s |
| Focal height: | 95 feet |
| Range: | 22 nautical miles |
| History | |
| Built 1965 | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | Commissioners of Irish Lights |
The Kish Bank Lighthouse, otherwise known just as the Kish Lighthouse, stands in the Irish Sea, on the hazardously shallow bank known as the Kish Bank, about seven miles off the coast of County Dublin.[1] It is a seamark visible to sailors and ferry passengers passing through Dublin Bay and Dún Laoghaire harbour.
In past days, many ships were wrecked on these shallows. The Vesper was lost in January 1876; the Norwegian MV Bolivar ran aground on the Kish Bank during a snow storm on 4 March 1947; both wrecks are frequently dived. A mailboat operated by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company between Kingstown and Holyhead, RMS Leinster, was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine on 10 October 1918: she went down four miles east of the Kish light with over 500 lives lost, the greatest single loss of life in the Irish Sea. Fifty-five wrecks are listed for the Kish Bank area.[2]
Building the lighthouse
Before the present Kish lighthouse was installed in 1965, the sandbank had been marked by a lightvessel since 1811. An attempt to build a lighthouse in 1842 was abandoned following the destruction caused by severe weather. The first Irish electric light vessel, Gannet, was installed in 1954.
The Commissioners of Irish Lights decided in 1960 to erect a reinforced concrete lighthouse with a helicopter landing pad on top, designed by Christiani & Nielsen. The sand bank was bored in 1961 and a seismic survey revealed about 300 feet of sand at the site. Construction began in 1963 in the Coal Harbour of Dún Laoghaire, but the first section of the lighthouse cracked while it was being built and had to be discarded. The second telescopic lighthouse was completed and towed out to the sandbank on 29 June 1965. The tower was raised on 27 July 1965 to its full height of 100 feet, with twelve floors inside, and with a helicopter platform 32 feet wide on top. It had a projected lifetime of 75 years.
The new lighthouse took over from the previous light vessel on 9 November 1965. The lighthouse operates at a candlepower of between two and three million, depending on visibility conditions, and the beam is visible for 27 nautical miles. The lighthouse was automated on 7 April 1992, and the keepers came ashore.[1]
In July 2018, Cunningham Civil & Marine undertook an overhaul of the site, including repainting and the upgrading of helicopter netting.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Kish Bank Lighthouse) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kish Bank Lighthouse: Commissioners of Irish Lights
- ↑ "Wrecks off Co. Dublin (D)". http://www.irishwrecksonline.net/Lists/DublinListD.htm.