British lighthouse plans

[RPaul]

Hi All, 

Does anyone happen to know where I can lay my hands on construction plans for British lighthouses?

I've found a reference to Stevenson collection that apparently has some Scottish lighthouse drawings, here: https://www.nls.uk/collections/maps/collections/special-collections#stevenson

But I can't find an index, nor any info on how to get access. I've emailed them, but haven't heard back yet. Physically going to London or Edinburgh isn't a problem.

 

I'm just considering building a scale model... Not sure which one, but probably Rubha nan Gall (I love it out there on Mull) or similar.

 

Thanks!

[AntonyUK]

Hi.

Did you try https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/shop/lighthouse-prints

They are responsable for most of the lighthouses in the UK.

 

Regards Antony.

 

Edit also Google photos

Edited February 1, 2019 by AntonyUK

[RPaul]

Hi Anthony, 

I did, but strange thing, lighthouses listed on their website are all in the south, far from all of those in England and Wales, although supposedly they are the overall general authority. And they don't cover Scotland at all, as far as I understand. Greenwich might have something, or the British Library, but so far I haven't found anything.

 

Thanks anyway, 

Pavel

[vossiewulf]

I just typed "Scotland Lighthouse Authority" into Google and it returned the Northern Lighthouse Board. They don't seem to have plans, but they have photographs and information about all lighthouses in Scotland.

[RPaul]

Missed that one, thanks, although I've been to that website. Still, no plans, only history.

[vossiewulf]

1 hour ago, RPaul said:

Missed that one, thanks, although I've been to that website. Still, no plans, only history.

I would contact them, as the standing authority for lighthouses they're most likely to have plans, even if they're not publicly offering them on their site. And wouldn't enough good photographs serve the purpose? If you know the height of the lighthouse from standard data, you could scale everything from good quality photos.

[RPaul]

Found it. Looks like the records of Northern Lighthouse Board are available for £8.25 each on canmore.org.uk. The only problem is that there's no preview, descriptions are often missing, and there are too many documents to buy them all :)

[wefalck]

David Hathaway sells a whole range of cardboard models fo British lighthouses on his Web-site: https://www.papershipwright.co.uk/category/lighthouses/

If these don't serve your purpose, you could contact him and ask him about his sources.

[bruce d]

Are light-ships of any use to you? There are a few more like this plus equipment drawings.

 

Regards,

Bruce

[RPaul]

Thanks chaps!

[corduroyflipflops]

Trinity House maintains lighthouses and navigation buoyage throughout the UK. A quick Google has found a load of prints of plans in their shop. Good for a general overview maybe?

 

https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/shop/lighthouse-prints

[bruce d]

I just can't leave it alone. Found these:

Danish digital archive, images F417, F418

[RPaul]

I'm still planning to do it - I found some docs for it listed in an archive in Edinburgh for the lighthouse i want to build, but I can't tell what's on them, since they're not digitised. The only way to find out is to go there at some point. I also took a gazillion photos of it when I was passing by. Them alone ought to be enough, it's just that plans would save me the time on figuring dimensions out.

[bruce d]

It might be worth phoning/emailing the archive and pleading your case. I have found many (not all) archives have helpful people who can help with small requests. You don't ask, you don't get...

[RPaul]

That's a good point, will give it a try. The irony is that I live just across the border in the Northwest, but the ticket there and back will still cost me as much as a small kit. At the end of the day I'll end up either biting the bullet, or thinking something up at work that'll take me to Edinburgh with a day to spare...