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Dennis Head Old Beacon
Dennis Head Old Beacon is a ruined lighthouse on the island of North Ronaldsay, Orkney, Scotland. The beacon and keepers' houses are protected as a scheduled monument. The tower was completed in 1789 under the supervision of Thomas Smith assisted by his stepson Robert Stevenson. It was to be the first of many island lighthouses for Smith (he had previously worked on the lights at Kinnaird Head and Mull of Kintyre). Its lighting system, although advanced for its time, consisting of a cluster of oil-burning lamps and reflectors was not very effective, often being mistaken for the mast-head of another ship by mariners. In 1809, with the construction of other nearby lighthouses, it was decided that the North Ronaldsay light was no longer required, and it was extinguished. The round stone tower was retained as a sea-mark, however, and the original beacon chamber at the top replaced by a vaulted roof, capped by a remarkable ball finial. The stone spiral staircase which once led to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, rocks, and safe entries to harbors; they also assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and has become uneconomical since the advent of much cheaper, more sophisticated and effective electronic navigational systems. History Ancient lighthouses Before the development of clearly defined ports, mariners were guided by fires built on hilltops. Since elevating the fire would improve the visibility, placing the fire on a platform became a practice that led to the development of the lighthouse. In antiquity, the lighthouse functioned more as an entrance marker to ports than as a warning signa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Restoration Village
''Restoration'' was a set of BBC television series where viewers decided on which listed building that was in immediate need of remedial works was to win a grant from Heritage Lottery Fund. It first aired in 2003. The host of all three series was Griff Rhys Jones, whilst investigating each building in the heats were the show's resident "ruin detectives", Marianne Suhr and Ptolemy Dean. First series Thirty buildings featured in ten regional heats in 2003, with money raised from the telephone vote being added to the prize fund. Viewers chose which of a selection of the United Kingdom's most important, but neglected, buildings should be awarded a Heritage Lottery Grant of £3m. The winning building was the turkish-bath section of the Victoria Baths in Manchester; however, bureaucratic and technical hurdles meant that the money raised could not be spent immediately, and final planning-approval to begin a restoration process did not go through until September 2005. The first phase ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1789 Establishments In Scotland
Events January–March * January – Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès publishes the pamphlet ''What Is the Third Estate?'' ('), influential on the French Revolution. * January 7 – The 1788-89 United States presidential election and House of Representatives elections are held. * January 9 – Treaty of Fort Harmar: The terms of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784) and the Treaty of Fort McIntosh, between the United States Government and certain native American tribes, are reaffirmed, with some minor changes. * January 21 – The first American novel, ''The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth'', is printed in Boston, Massachusetts. The anonymous author is William Hill Brown. * January 23 – Georgetown University is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (today part of Washington, D.C.), as the first Roman Catholic college in the United States. * January 29 – In Vietnam, Emperor Quang Trung crushes the Chinese Qing forces in Ngọ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lighthouses In Orkney
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, rocks, and safe entries to harbors; they also assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and has become uneconomical since the advent of much cheaper, more sophisticated and effective electronic navigational systems. History Ancient lighthouses Before the development of clearly defined ports, mariners were guided by fires built on hilltops. Since elevating the fire would improve the visibility, placing the fire on a platform became a practice that led to the development of the lighthouse. In antiquity, the lighthouse functioned more as an entrance marker to ports than as a warning signal for ree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruins In Orkney
Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate destruction by humans, or uncontrollable destruction by natural phenomena. The most common root causes that yield ruins in their wake are natural disasters, armed conflict, and population decline, with many structures becoming progressively derelict over time due to long-term weathering and scavenging. There are famous ruins all over the world, with notable sites originating from ancient China, the Indus Valley and other regions of ancient India, ancient Iran, ancient Israel and Judea, ancient Iraq, ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, Roman sites throughout the Mediterranean Basin, and Incan and Mayan sites in the Americas. Ruins are of great importance to historians, archaeologists and anthropologists, whether they were once individual fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Towers Completed In 1789
A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifically distinguished from buildings in that they are built not to be habitable but to serve other functions using the height of the tower. For example, the height of a clock tower improves the visibility of the clock, and the height of a tower in a fortified building such as a castle increases the visibility of the surroundings for defensive purposes. Towers may also be built for observation, leisure, or telecommunication purposes. A tower can stand alone or be supported by adjacent buildings, or it may be a feature on top of a larger structure or building. Etymology Old English ''torr'' is from Latin ''turris'' via Old French ''tor''. The Latin term together with Greek τύρσις was loaned from a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean languag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lighthouses Completed In 1789
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, rocks, and safe entries to harbors; they also assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and has become uneconomical since the advent of much cheaper, more sophisticated and effective electronic navigational systems. History Ancient lighthouses Before the development of clearly defined ports, mariners were guided by fires built on hilltops. Since elevating the fire would improve the visibility, placing the fire on a platform became a practice that led to the development of the lighthouse. In antiquity, the lighthouse functioned more as an entrance marker to ports than as a warning signal for reefs and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Ronaldsay Lighthouse
North Ronaldsay Lighthouse was built in 1852 on the island of North Ronaldsay in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, 43 years after Dennis Head Old Beacon was deactivated. It lies at the north of the island at , and boasts Britain's tallest land-based lighthouse tower. The old fog siren with notable red trumpet was replaced by an electric diaphragm-type horn. That horn was discontinued in favour of a Tyfon horn consisting of 8 mini-trumpets installed on the building that once housed the fog siren. The Tyfon horn gives three blasts every 60 seconds. The electric beeper horn now lies flat on the ground next to the fog signal building, and is still in service today. See also * List of lighthouses in Scotland * List of Northern Lighthouse Board lighthouses This is a list of the currently operational lighthouses of the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB). The list is divided by geographical location, and then by whether the lighthouses are classed by the NLB as a 'major lighthouse' or a 'min ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mull Of Kintyre
The Mull of Kintyre is the southwesternmost tip of the Kintyre Peninsula (formerly ''Cantyre'') in southwest Scotland. From here, the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland is visible on a calm and clear day, and a historic lighthouse, the second commissioned in Scotland, guides shipping in the intervening North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel. The area has been immortalised in popular culture by the 1977 hit song "Mull of Kintyre (song), Mull of Kintyre" by Kintyre resident Paul McCartney's band of the time, Wings (band), Wings. Etymology The name is an anglicisation of the Goidelic languages, Gaelic Maol Chinn Tìre (), in English: "The rounded [or bare] headland of Kintyre", where chinn and tìre are the genitive forms of ceann ''head'' and tìr ''land, country'' respectively. The English variant ''Cantyre'' derives from the phrase ceann tìre "head land". Mull (geographical term), Mull as a geographical term is most commonly found in southwest Scotland, whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Island
An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot or ait, and a small island off the coast may be called a holm. Sedimentary islands in the Ganges Delta are called chars. A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands, such as the Philippines, is referred to as an archipelago. There are two main types of islands in the sea: continental islands and oceanic islands. There are also artificial islands (man-made islands). There are about 900,000 official islands in the world. This number consists of all the officially-reported islands of each country. The total number of islands in the world is unknown. There may be hundreds of thousands of tiny islands that are unknown and uncounted. The number of sea islands in the world is estimated to be more than 200,000. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kinnaird Head
Kinnaird Head ( gd, An Ceann Àrd, "high headland") is a headland projecting into the North Sea, within the town of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, on the east coast of Scotland. The 16th-century Kinnaird Castle was converted in 1787 for use as the Kinnaird Head Lighthouse, the first lighthouse in Scotland to be lit by the Commissioners of Northern Lights. Kinnaird Castle and the nearby Wine Tower were described by W. Douglas Simpson as two of the nine castles of the Knuckle, referring to the rocky headland of north-east Aberdeenshire. The lighthouse is a category A listed building. and the Wine Tower (perhaps from ''Wynd Tower''). is a scheduled monument. The buildings around the base of the lighthouse are the work of Robert Stevenson. Kinnaird Castle , also known as Fraserburgh Castle and Kinnairdshead Castle, was begun in March 1570. The builder was Sir Alexander Fraser, 8th laird of Philorth, (c.1536–1623), who also transformed the fishing village of Faithlie into the burgh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Stevenson (civil Engineer)
Robert Stevenson, FRSE, FGS, FRAS, FSA Scot, MWS (8 June 1772 – 12 July 1850) was a Scottish civil engineer, and designer and builder of lighthouses. His works include the Bell Rock Lighthouse. Early life Robert Stevenson was born in Glasgow. His father was Alan Stevenson, a partner in a West Indies sugar trading house in the city. Alan died of an epidemic fever on the island of St. Christopher in the West Indies on 26 May 1774, a few days before Robert's second birthday. Robert's uncle died of the same disease around the same time. Since this left Alan's widow, Jean Lillie Stevenson, in much-reduced financial circumstances, Robert was educated, as a young child, at a charity school. Robert's mother intended him to join the ministry, so when he was a bit older she enrolled him in the school of a locally famous Glasgow linguist, a Mr Macintyre. But when Robert was 15, she remarried and the family moved to 1 Blair Street, off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. Robert's new st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
