Souter Lighthouse was built about 150 years ago to help ships safely navigate in the seas around Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Sunderland. Back then up to twenty ships each year were wrecked there.
It was the first UK lighthouse to be powered by electricity. It had its own generators, but the lighthouse keepers were still using gas or oil lamps for their accommodation there. The lights used 4500W bulbs that could be seen for miles. There was also an air-powered fog-horn. At some point they switched back to oil lamps as that was cheaper than running the generators. Each lighthouse along the coast would have a distinct design so that sailors could tell where they were.
It closed down in 1988 when GPS made navigation safer. You can now climb the tower to see the massive light. It weighs a few tons, but you can push it around by hand as it floats on a bath of mercury. At some point it was moved by a clockwork system using a weight that hangs below, but eventually used a small electric motor. The lenses had to be cleaned by hand every few days. The ladder to the top is steep and so some people might struggle to get up there.
You can see where the light house keepers lived and there are some displays about the history. When we went some local schoolkids were doing the tour.
There are some walks along the coast, but we did not go far. You can follow the costal path around most of the country, but that would take a while. This rock is covered in nesting seabirds. There was a guy by the lighthouse watching them with his telescope and camera with a long lens.
Looking back you can see the whole site with the foghorn on the left. There used to be a small mining town on that field, but it was demolished in 1968 when the mine closed. Off to the left (out of sight) are the old lime kilns that used coal from the mine.
This is a National Trust property so we got free entry with our membership. Otherwise it is around £7 for adults and you need to pay for the car park. They have a cafe that we did not visit. It is a fairly small site, but worth a visit if you are passing.
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We have a ton of lighthouses around where I live and they are all just wonderful to visit. I shared a couple new ones in my post today too. Very cool stuff!
Some of ours are out at sea, but this one is easy to get to. It was interesting for the history and the engineering.
The lenses are beautiful!
They are real works of art. They had to do all that work without computers to work it all out.
Very cool! That's interesting they have the light in a mercury bath. Is it sealed so people can't get into the mercury?
!BBH
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I couldn't see the mercury, but I assume it's safe if they are letting people get up close. It's a big massive floating there.
Ah, okay. That's reassuring then. I imagined this massive open bowl of mercury and was hoping I was way off. 😆
It can be toxic stuff. The original workers there may have got a lot of exposure so I wonder if the guides who work there now have to limit how long they spend up there. I found a study showing it may not be too bad if they take precautions. The I found this by someone who visited this same lighthouse. We were only up there for a few minutes.
I vaguely remember something about science teachers having some higher risks from exposure to mercury in experiments at school. The rules on using it may have changed since I was in those classes. I had a toy maze game with mercury in it and that may not be allowed now.
Yeah, mercury is definitely something you don't want to fool around with.
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Lighthouse reminds me of that scene from harry potter, when hagrid arrives and slams the door during a storm.
What a fascinating history! I'm impressed by the fact that a multi-ton lens can be pushed by hand thanks to mercury
There have been clever engineers for a long time. They didn't even have computers :)
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Hermoso faro 😍