Toward Point Lighthouse

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Toward Point Lighthouse

Argyllshire


Toward Point Lighthouse
Location
Grid reference: NS13636722
Location: 55°51’43"N, 4°58’47"W
Characteristics
Light: Fl. W 10sec
Range: 22 nautical miles
History
First lit: 1812
Architect: Robert Stevenson
Information

Toward Point Lighthouse is on the southern extremity of the Cowal Peninsula, near the village of Toward and six miles south of Dunoon, Argyllshire. There has been a lighthouse here since 1812.

Toward Point Lighthouse was completed in 1812. It was built by Robert Stevenson (1772–1850) for the Cumbrae Lighthouse Trust.[1] Two lighthouse keepers' houses were added in the later 1800s.

A white building on the foreshore housed the foghorn mechanism, originally a steam engine and then diesel engines. The foghorn was taken out of operation in the 1990s.[2] The keeper's cottages were sold in 2012 and are now a private home.[3]

Toward Point marks the extreme south-westerly point of the Highland Boundary Fault as it crosses the mainland of Great Britain:[4] it does not run through Toward Point, but about half a mile to the west. The Fault can be located on the Toward shore by the presence of Serpentinite and the sudden change from younger sedimentary rocks to much older metamorphic rocks, notably Psammite.

Pictures

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Toward Point Lighthouse)

References

  1. Ritchie, James Neil Graham; Harman, Mary (1996). Argyll and the Western Isles. Exploring Scotland's Heritage. Seven Hills Books. p. 72. ISBN 9780114952877. https://archive.org/details/argyllwesternisl00ritc/page/72. 
  2. "Toward Lighthouse". Photographers Resource. http://www.photographers-resource.co.uk/A_heritage/Lighthouses/LG3_Sct/Toward.htm. Retrieved 16 January 2011. 
  3. Rowlett, Russ: Lighthouses of Scotland: Argyll and Bute – The Lighthouse Directory (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
  4. MacNair, Peter (2012-11-29). Argyllshire and Buteshire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-1107657526.