Maryport Lighthouse is a small

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. Ligh ...

located in

Maryport Maryport is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town is on the coast of the Solway Firth and lies at the northern end of the former Cumberland Co ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, England, formerly run by England's

general lighthouse authority A general lighthouse authority (GLA) is one of three agencies primarily responsible for aids to navigation in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. They are divided into regions as follows: *Trinity House: England & Wales, Channel Islan ...

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 ...

. It is a Grade II listed building.

18th century

Maryport is said to have possessed a small lighthouse in 1796; five years later

Robert Stevenson Robert, Rob, or Bob Stevenson may refer to: * Robert Stevenson (civil engineer) (1772–1850), Scottish lighthouse engineer * Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), Scottish writer ("Treasure Island"), grandson of lighthouse engineer Robert Stevenso ...

described it in a report as an oil lamp with two reflectors.

19th century

In 1833 an Act of Parliament granted permission for a dock to be built at Maryport together with a new pier and lighthouse. Construction was overseen by a new board of trustees and the pier, complete with its lighthouse, was in place by 1846. Both remain ''in situ'' and the light is said to be the UK's oldest

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

lighthouse (though it no longer serves as a navigation light). It is high and consists of an octagonal metal plinth, column and lantern on top of a rusticated stone base. It was originally gas-lit. Subsequently, the harbour continued to expand. In 1852, following a storm, the south pier (on which the lighthouse stands) was extended, and a new light was provided at the end of the pier extension (described as a lantern on a post, lit by three gas jets) with a range of . The lighthouse thereafter served as a tidal light, being lit at night only for as long as there was of water within the harbour; (during the day it exhibited a red spherical day mark to signify the same). In 1858 the Harbour Trustees commissioned

James Chance James Chance, also known as James White (born James Siegfried, April 20, 1953 – June 18, 2024), was an American saxophonist, keyboard player, and singer. A key figure in no wave, Chance played a combination of improvisational jazz-like musi ...

to manufacture a small (fourth-order) fixed

optic Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultravio ...

for the lighthouse, which gave the tidal light a range of . The previous year, following completion of the Elizabeth Dock, additional (minor) lights had been installed on the north tongue and south jetty, within the harbour, coloured green and red respectively.

20th century

By 1946 the light was powered by

acetylene Acetylene (Chemical nomenclature, systematic name: ethyne) is a chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is u ...

. The painter

L. S. Lowry Laurence Stephen Lowry ( ; 1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Greater Manchester (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its ...

used Maryport and the lighthouse in several of his paintings. Trinity House took charge of it in 1961. In 1996 Trinity House provided a new

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

tower () for the end of the pier extension, lit by mains electricity. At 4.7 metres tall and with a light intensity of only 120

candelas The candela (symbol: cd) is the unit of luminous intensity in the International System of Units (SI). It measures luminous power per unit solid angle emitted by a light source in a particular direction. Luminous intensity is analogous to radian ...

, the new tower was one of Trinity House's smaller beacons; it displays a flashing white light visible out to sea.

21st century

In 2010 Trinity House transferred responsibility for the new light to the Maryport Harbour Authority. The old lighthouse was restored and repainted in 2017 as part of a government-funded initiative for the refurbishment of seaside towns. Maryport Lighthouse was recognised during the 370th Council Meeting of the Round Table of Britain and Ireland.

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