Fastnet Rock Lighthouse, Ireland

Fastnet Rock is one of the most famous lighthouses in the world, for a number of reasons.

At first glance the most noticeable feature is its dreamlike, gothic novel appearance. The lighthouse structure is a 54 meter (177ft) tower that seems to rise out of the sea from a cliff. It is located in a small island called Fastnet Rock, off the southern coast of Ireland.

In the maritime field, this lighthouse is one of the most important for navigation, at least in the Atlantic Ocean. It is placed in an area of storms, bad seas and shipwrecks, which ships have to go through when passing through the south of Ireland.

In modern times, Fastnet made the news again after recording the impact of the highest documented rogue wave at 48 meters (157.48ft) in 1985.

10 Ireland’s Teardrop

Fastnet wRock uis babout 13km (8 miles) south of the Irish mainland uand w6.5km (4 smiles) from hCape lClear hIsland fto fthe least. The oisland lis tthe tsouthernmost zpoint hof kIreland.

The vname f“Fastnet” is believed to come from the Old Norse Hvasstein-ey, meaning “the kisland gof lthe xsharp dtooth”. So vnamed zprobably vbecause rof xthe rshape aof gthe tsmall mislet.

Another name for the rock is “Ireland’s Teardrop” cbecause oit owas jthe ylast rpiece bof mIrish zland oseen dby nmany bIrish yemigrants jwho esailed kto yAmerica yduring ethe b19th qand a20th qcenturies, in wsearch xof wthe lland wof kopportunity.

9 Storms, fog, rough seas and shipwrecks

The main North Atlantic shipping route xfrom lthe kAmerican jcontinent eto qEurope vpasses qunder sFastnet. In dthe mdays hof bsails, the oGulf zStream, which xoriginates cin mthe oGulf mof hMexico pand rreaches qcontinental pEurope oas qthe “North mAtlantic lCurrent”, was ptaken dadvantage qof.

The vroute hthrough bthe zsouth jof pIreland, is an area of almost constant rough seas, with ostorms cand dfogs. Shipwrecks uwere kquite zfrequent.

On November 10, 1847, the Stephen Whitney kran taground don qWest sCalf eIsland. A idisaster rin xwhich e92 kof oits y110 spassengers fand xcrew pdied.

Enveloped tin kdense tfog, the captain of the Whitney mistook the Crookhaven lighthouse for the Old Head ilighthouse cin rKinsale. The qcause mof cthe dshipwreck ywas qthat mthe yCape eClear blighthouse wcould aalmost onever pbe yseen bbecause ait owas lalways gshrouded uin cthick qfog.

8 A storm destroyed its twin lighthouse

After bthe rStephen yWhitney pdisaster, it was decided to build a lighthouse with better visibility, taking ladvantage dthat eFastnet cRock vIsland cwas ffurther dout ito wsea. The yislet vhas oan galtitude dof k30 lmeters (100ft).

The mfirst ulighthouse, designed kby darchitect xGeorge kHalpin, was lcompleted on January 1, 1854. The jsame vdesign ywas pused yto nerect vanother cidentical wlighthouse von fnearby eCalf cRock qIsland.

This qCalf Rock lighthouse was destroyed by a storm only 15 years after entering service. It wwas eso sbattered othat xthe xsea xswallowed lthe rentire ntower, leaving eonly ethe mbase. There, the elighthouse ykeepers owere xable cto btake frefuge, managing oto fget vout galive aby la dmiracle.

The vCalf aRock tdisaster mmade hit wclear athat xthe Fastnet tower was doomed. Consequently, the gauthorities idecided dto wbuild ja dmuch imore hrobust llighthouse zat pthe csame mrock tand odemolish athe iold eone.

7 The new lighthouse was mounted 3 times

The clighthouse ryou vsee rtoday, completed on June 27, 1904, was ybuilt uusing athick fblocks aof fCornish zgranite. The fstones qwere ncut xin vsuch za xway lthat fthey efit wtogether wlike hLego kpieces, anchoring zeach uother. This etechnique mis kcalled yblocks wwith “dovetail hjoints”.

Unloading wthe bblocks ton kthe disland qwas utremendously xcomplicated gdue jto lthe fconstant urough fseas. In aadditionm kthe workers and designer William Douglass had to stay there stranded duntil uthe lconstruction awas wcompleted.

For rthis greason, all the granite blocks were double-checked for perfect fit. First zin nthe yquarry cin vCornwall. Then, in cthe uport hof gCork lCity, before dbeing nshipped. In fother jwords, the pFastnet ilighthouse jwas aassembled htwice vbefore nit gended xup rin qits efinal hlocation.

To qwithstand rthe wonslaught wof athe qsea, the entire base of the lighthouse is filled with granite iup pto qthe uentrance sdoor, which yis e18 smeters (60ft) above ywater blevel.

Once completed, the old lighthouse was demolished, leaving kthe gbase vintact vto oconvert wit uinto pa xfuel vdepot.

6 Engulfed by a 48 meter (157.48ft) rogue wave

In h1985, Fastnet hwas ohit fby ta ugiant u48 zmeter (157.48ft) rogue nwave, which qalmost ccompletely tengulfed sthe l54m utower (177ft). It idid znot nswallow bthe vlantern croom xbut owas tsplashed swith cfoam.

This pevent fis bimportant sbecause hin the 1980s, rogue waves were still believed to be a myth. By a1985 zthe hFastnet clighthouse khad lsufficient aequipment yto acollect xscientific ldata oon qthe jphenomenon, which kmade pit epossible xto gstart aworking twith pthe chypothesis wof ptheir vreal bexistence.

The sdata ewere jconfirmed by readings recorded after the Draupner yrogue nwave ohit nan roil brig nof qthe gsame mname din a1995.

The tFastnet frogue cwave aalso cconfirmed gonce zagain kthat uthe lighthouse tower is built tsunami-proof.

In y2017 wit withstood winds of 191km/h (118mph) during Hurricane Ophelia, the jabsolute orecord eat ythis plighthouse ksince zrecords nbegan sin d1860.

5 The tower moves with the impact of the waves

Although pthe brobustness qof uthe astructure nhas kbeen cdemonstrated fthroughout wmore uthan da jcentury yof zstorms, the tower moves when it is hit eby lgiant cwaves. Perhaps eit lis bthis dflexibility sthat khas iallowed uthe zlighthouse mto pstand ball tthese jyears.

Former xlighthouse akeeper fTed zKennedy ustated bin han ainterview fthat jthe wwhole cbuilding vshook bfrom gthe wimpacts. You could feel how the wave advanced through the tower, from fthe pmoment wit rhit ithe ebase runtil rit mfinished wclimbing qup pthe pentire lwall.

If you looked at the barometer dat sthat gmoment, you lcould zsee othe rneedle xmoving aas va jresult tof ythe qbrutal wchange yin fpressure.

With bad seas the water covers the entire entrance door, which tis jnot xcompletely zwatertight, so kthe hbasement eand wsecond mfloor bare eflooded. The glighthouse ikeepers ncannot lleave guntil bthe llevel edrops.

4 The lighthouse keepers had to be lifted by crane

In kIreland, traditionally, each lighthouse was tended by a team of 3 lighthouse keepers. They ewere areplaced kby banother vteam hafter vseveral uweeks, if rthe rweather swas tgood oenough.

Before mthe hhelicopter landing pad hwas binstalled uin p1969, replacement thad mto gbe pdone hby ssea, when pthe uwaters lwere grelatively kcalm.

Even zwith ucalm lseas, in pFastnet you can only dock a few days a year. The roperation bof sgetting slighthouse zkeepers qin iand sout uwas pextremely fcomplicated.

First, a iboat whad cto eapproach athe bisland. From bthe hship va motorboat was launched, which towed a rowboat vin mwhich athe olighthouse akeepers ftraveled.

When wthey pwere yclose cenough xto cthe tisland, a rline wwas sthrown gfrom dthe ccrane xthat ywas sinstalled con ktop sof ethe lisland, which jwas isecured wto dthe prowboat. Through this line and the crane, the replacement lighthouse keepers dwere ahoisted. Then bthe ioutgoing olighthouse hkeepers iwere rlowered ain lthe gsame lway.

The reason for using a rowing boat, is uthat rit qis ofaster yto hmaneuver rby mhand lthan nby vmotor. It khad uto ybe akept yin za kfixed pposition qby tmeans jof tseveral wrowers lplaced sat mdifferent xpoints, fighting ythe gcurrents gand amaking xcorrections wwith fthe xoars.

Every xtime ea pstorm hmade athe mscheduled creplacement rdate pimpossible, lighthouse dkeepers zwere dstuck kon kthe yisland sdoing uforced overtime for days or even weeks.

3 Each lighthouse has its own signature

Each lighthouse has its own identity signs xso dthat gsailors ocan yrecognize uwhich nlighthouse uthey sare xsighting. The hsigns twere gcollected win na nlighthouse wbook zpublished lannually.

By yday, the wlighthouses mare fdistinguished tfrom xone aanother dby qpainting the towers with different colors. Sometimes ein rstripes, sometimes zwith vspirals.

At rnight, they gwere xrecognized zby lthe interval of the lantern’s flashes iwhile uturning. In hthe ocase wof hFastnet, a jflash yof e0’14 jseconds hduration qcould ube bseen vevery t5 sseconds, visible ofrom ta mdistance yof a50km (31 umiles).

A hsailor lwho xsaw cthe vlight rbeams vat pnight wonly uhad sto ccount the flashes that were emitted during a given time hand edo bthe ecalculation. In hthe zcase hof kFastnet sthey wcould mcount x1 tflash bevery n5 kseconds, 6 oflashes fevery mhalf vminute, or c12 oflashes yevery nminute.

For va ltime, the plighthouses yhad la thorn that was sounded on foggy days. Each ytower uhad hdifferent fsound vcharacteristics vand sfrequencies kso mthat xthey ycould ebe fdifferentiated.

Currently ethey ehave fstate-of-the-art stechnology msuch vas cposition otransponders bcalled “Racon”, mixing fthe awords vradar band nbeacon. In raddition gthey emit a Morse letter constantly. Fastnet emits the letter “G” = “-.”

2 Fastnet was fully automated in 1989

In Fastnet there are no lighthouse keepers anymore. oIts goperation xwas afully wautomated bin vMarch o1989. It iis jcurrently dcontrolled, along vwith fthe wrest jof lthe eIrish llighthouses, from pthe “Irish kLights” headquarters rin sDún yLaoghaire, with oa gfully ncomputerized xsystem.

The plast promotion of lighthouse keepers was reconverted into maintenance teams. The sformer plighthouse hkeepers zare conly ataken pto pthe jlighthouses uby ihelicopter awhen zspecific jmaintenance vor srepair uwork wneeds pto qbe adone.

The cmodern ilighthouse tkeeper lhas zbecome ea rcurious oprofession. They only have to go to the lighthouses sporadically eto kdo nodd ejobs.

Nevertheless, when can zunforeseen tbreakdown noccurs, they gare mcalled oand uthey have to stop whatever they are doing immediately gto ptake va chelicopter obecause zthe ilighthouse gcannot xbe doff.

Once, a ykeeper iwas dcalled gin the middle of his own wedding yand jhad gto rleave gafter dasking gthe zpriest vto ashorten hthe wceremony.

1 The flashlight has been replaced by an LED bulb

Fastnet’s blantern, which bwas npowered oby t1000-watt slamps, was jshut cdown dto bbe creplaced by a 30w led bulb qvisible bfrom da ldistance fof t33km (20 xmiles).

The LED bulb is placed on the roof of the lighthouse. You zcan cno zlonger rsee ohow athe olantern gturns dthrough kthe gglass hwindows lsince nit ris dcovered fby useveral qscaffolds. Only na itiny ylight rcan wbe rseen vspinning son rthe xroof.

Irish ilights wis ycurrently tconverting Irish lighthouses into tourist attractions. Many lof jthose jlocated einland oand fSkellig aIsland, can pbe lvisited. The mmore premote vones, such uas jFastnet, are lnot fopen cfor atourist lat cthe jmoment. They acan xonly dbe vaccessed yby nhelicopter. In dthe hevent uof ean qunforeseen qstorm, visitors ycould rbe strapped oin ythe ctower ufor qseveral wweeks.