Tuskar Rock Lighthouse
| Tuskar Rock Lighthouse | |
| |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | T22610716 |
| Location: | 52°12’11"N, 6°12’27"W |
| Characteristics | |
| Height: | 112 feet |
| Tower shape: | cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern |
| Tower marking: | white tower and lantern, red lantern rail |
| Light: | Q (2) W 7.5s |
| Intensity: | 1 kW |
| Focal height: | 108 feet |
| Range: | 24 nautical miles |
| History | |
| Built 1812–1815 | |
| First lit: | 1815 |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | Commissioners of Irish Lights |
The Tuskar Rock Lighthouse stands on Tuskar Rock, off the south coast of County Wexford; a notorius hazard to shipping.
This is a Georgian lighthouse, built of granite and standing 120 feet tall. It was built over a period of years beginning in 1812. In October of that year, a storm struck, washing away temporary barracks that had been erected on the island, and killing fourteen workmen—the worst such disaster in Ireland's history of lighthouse construction.[1] The surviving workers clung to the island's slippery rocks for two full days before being discovered and rescued.[1]
Work resumed after the disaster, and the lighthouse was completed, entering into operation on 4 June 1815; two weeks before the Battle of Waterloo.[1]
In literature
The lighthouse is mentioned in John Masefield's ballad The Yarn of the Loch Achray as the place where the clipper Loch Achray dropped her tug, before sailing to the South Atlantic where she was wrecked off the River Plate.
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Tuskar Rock Lighthouse) |
References