Bardsey Lighthouse stands on the southerly tip of

Bardsey Island Bardsey Island (), known as the legendary "Island of 20,000 Saints", is located off the Llŷn Peninsula in the Wales, Welsh county of Gwynedd. The Welsh language, Welsh name means "The Island in the Currents", while its English name refers to t ...

, off the

Llŷn Peninsula The Llŷn Peninsula ( or , ) is a peninsula in Gwynedd, Wales, with an area of about , and a population of at least 20,000. It extends into the Irish Sea, and its southern coast is the northern boundary of the Tremadog Bay inlet of Cardigan Ba ...

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

, Wales, and guides vessels passing through

St George's Channel St George's Channel (, ) is a sea channel connecting the Irish Sea to the north and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It separates Wexford on the southeastern corner of Ireland from St Davids in on the southwestern tip of Wales. Origin of nam ...

and the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

History

Application for a light here was first made in 1816 by Lt. Thomas Evans R.N., but several other applications made in 1820 finally resulted in the building of the tower by

Trinity House The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond, also known as Trinity House (and formally as The Master, Wardens and Assistants of the Guild Fraternity or Brotherhood of the most glorious and undivided Trinity and of St Clement in the ...

in 1821 at a cost of £5,470 12s 6d plus a further £2,950 16s 7d for the lanternDouglas Bland Hague, ''Lighthouses of Wales Their Architecture and Archaeology'', 1994,

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW; ; ), established in 1908, is a Welsh Government sponsored body concerned with some aspects of the archaeological, architectural and historic environment of Wales. ...

, Aberystwyth, 102 pages, (equivalent to £ and £ in ). Joseph Nelson was the engineer and builder, but the heavy weathered string-course near the base and the blocked and hooded directional-light window show the influence of Daniel Alexander, who succeeded Samuel Wyatt as consulting engineer to Trinity House, and under whom Nelson served. Joseph Nelson is associated with the design of at least fifteen lighthouses, mostly in the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel (, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales (from Pembrokeshire to the Vale of Glamorgan) and South West England (from Devon to North Somerset). It extends ...

. In 1987 the lighthouse was converted to automatic operation and up until 1995 was monitored from the Trinity House area control station at

Holyhead Holyhead (; , "Cybi's fort") is a historic port town, and is the list of Anglesey towns by population, largest town and a Community (Wales), community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales. Holyhead is on Holy Island, Anglesey, Holy Island ...

. It is now monitored from the Trinity House depot at

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-o ...

,Trinity House : ''Bardsey Lighthouse''
Retrieved 16 August 2009 with a local part-time attendant carrying out routine maintenance.

Architecture

The lighthouse is built of

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and is unplastered inside and out, but painted in red and white bands on the outside. The lighthouse

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

is high and is unusual amongst Trinity House towers of this period in being square in plan ( Coquet Lighthouse, Northumberland is also square). Unlike many other lighthouses, it retains its original gallery railings, which are of iron and bellied (i.e. curved out in width at their crowns) towards the top. Other examples include Salt Island Lighthouse, at Holyhead, designed by John Rennie in the same year. The present lantern, fitted in 1856, did not require the removal of the original railings. The

plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

of the tower is high and elaborately enriched, and at ground level it forms a square of reducing to at the top of the plinth and at the top of the tower below the crowning

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

, which juts out in a square of . The walls are thick at the base reducing to under at the top. Originally, the light comprised reflectors but changed to a dioptric (refracting) mechanism in 1838; the appearance of the original lantern is not known. The present lantern of 1856 is a wide chamfered octagon and the light remained fixed, instead of revolving. The present revolving apparatus was installed in 1873 and gives a group of five flashes, originally driven by a vapourising oil-lamp, but replaced by electric in 1973. The lighthouse is unusual in lacking any sort of harbour or quay facilities. As it is on an established migratory route, the tower has many bird casualties and The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Trinity House have tried to help the problem by providing perches on the lantern top and flood-lighting the tower, although this does not seem to have helped.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Aberdaron Cardigan Bay Lighthouses in Wales Grade II listed lighthouses Grade II listed buildings in Gwynedd

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links