Obrestad Lighthouse () is a
coastal 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 on the north side of the small farming village of
Obrestad in
Hå
Hå is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is the southernmost municipality in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the v ...
municipality,
Rogaland
Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. As of 1 January 2024, it had a population of 49 ...
county,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. It sits on a
promontory
A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the s ...
about west of
Nærbø
Nærbø is the largest village in Hå municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located in the district of Jæren, about half-way between the town of Bryne and the village of Varhaug. The village sits about south of Norway's fourth ...
. The square tower was first lit in 1873 and the tower was rebuilt in its present form in 1950. The lighthouse was automated in 1991 and has been a protected historical building since 2000.
The tall square granite tower is attached to the landward end of a -story granite lighthouse keeper's home. The tower is painted white with a red lantern room on the top. The keeper's house, which was built in 1905, is unpainted stone. The light itself sits at an elevation of above sea level. The light emits a continuous white light with an intensity of 129,900
candela
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 radi ...
with a more intense white flash (1,526,000 cd) every 30 seconds. The lighthouse also emits a
racon
Radar beacon (short: racon) is – according to ''article 1.103'' of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) ITU Radio Regulations (RR) – defined as "A transmitter-receiver associated with a fixed navigational mark which, when trig ...
signal: the
Morse code
Morse code is a telecommunications method which Character encoding, encodes Written language, text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code i ...
letter "O".
The municipal government of
Hå
Hå is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is the southernmost municipality in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the v ...
purchased the lighthouse station in 2006. There is a museum in the lighthouse and the keeper's house is available for private functions or overnight accommodations. The site is open to visitors daily from mid-June through mid-August and on Sundays from March through June and August through December.
See also
*
Lighthouses in Norway
The coast of Norway is long and there have been a total of 212 lighthouses along it, but no more than 154 have ever been operational at the same time. The first, Lindesnes Lighthouse, opened in 1655; the newest Lighthouse, Anda Lighthouse, w ...
*
List of lighthouses in Norway
The following is a sortable, but partial list of active and some decommissioned Lighthouses in Norway, lighthouses along the Norwegian coastline.
The sequence number follows the convention of listing lighthouses from the coastal border in the sou ...
References
Lighthouses completed in 1873
Lighthouses in Rogaland
Hå
Listed lighthouses in Norway
1873 establishments in Norway
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