Survey Data
Reg No
40900213
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social, Technical
Original Use
Lighthouse
In Use As
Lighthouse
Date
1950 - 1960
Coordinates
247949, 464869
Date Recorded
10/06/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding four-stage lighthouse on tapering circular-plan, built between 1956-8 having glass and metal lantern over, and with pronounced batter to base. Cantilevered concrete walking around base of lantern having steel safety railings. Diaphone fog signal mounted above lantern. Single-storey flat-roofed structure adjoining to the south-west, linked to lighthouse by single-bay single-storey flat-roofed structure. Cement rendered reinforced concrete walls to lighthouse and ancillary structures. Square-headed window openings with metal-framed window fittings. Square-headed doorways with timber doors. Located at the west end of Inishtrahull Island, about 5 miles to the north of Malin Head. Two semi-detached former lighthouse keepers’ residences (see 40900214) adjacent to the east\south-east. Freestanding fog signal (on hexagonal-plan) to the north-west, built 1905; helicopter pad and single-storey ancillary structure to the north-east. Remains of former lighthouse (see 40900215), built 1812 - 3, and ancillary structures located to the east at opposite end of island.
Appraisal
This tall and slender lighthouse is an important element of the twentieth-century built heritage of County Donegal. Constructed of robust modern materials, it retains its originally form and character. It was built to designs by the engineer A. D. H. Martin (1915 – 2004), Engineer-in-Chief at the Commissioners of Irish Lights from 1956. This lighthouse is the northern most of the Irish lighthouses. The lights originally had a range of some twenty nautical miles and has a light intensity of 1.75 million candelas. However, a new light was established following automation in the 1980s, and the light now has an intensity of 760,000 candellas and a range of 25 nautical miles. It was the first lighthouse built in Ireland by the Commissioners of Irish Lights during the twentieth century, and replaced an earlier lighthouse on Inishtrahull (see 40900215), the stump of which can still be seen to the opposite end of the Island. The detached fog signal to the north-east was built for The Royal Navy by the Lighthouse Authority in 1905 to facilitate British naval shipping out of Lough Swilly. This lighthouse has provided a familiar and welcome sight to mariners and fishermen for over fifty years, and is a conspicuous feature on the scenic but desolate and uninhabited island some 5 miles north of Malin Head. It forms the centrepiece of a pair of related structures along with the former lighthouse keeper's house to site (see 40900214) and is an integral element of the extensive maritime heritage of County Donegal. It is also built on the site of a ‘Lloyds Signal Station’, which was used to relay information (by semaphore) on the arrival of shipping from North America to the former signal tower\Napoleonic (see 40900101) and the former telegraph and\or semaphore station (see 40900113) on Malin Head to the south. This information was then passed on to Lloyds of London for insurance purposes (Lloyds of London underwrote the insurance for many transatlantic shipping ventures).