Wolf Rock Lighthouse

Wolf Rock Lighthouse

Wolf Rock Lighthouse
Location Land's End
Cornwall
England
Coordinates 49°56.72′N 05°48.50′W / 49.94533°N 5.80833°W / 49.94533; -5.80833Coordinates: 49°56.72′N 05°48.50′W / 49.94533°N 5.80833°W / 49.94533; -5.80833
Year first constructed 1869
Automated 1988
Foundation concrete basement
Construction granite tower
Tower shape tapered cylindrical tower with lantern and helipad on the top
Markings / pattern unpainted tower, white lantern
Height 41 m (135 ft)
Focal height 34 m (112 ft)
Intensity 17,100 candela
Range 16 nautical miles (30 km; 18 mi)
Characteristic Fl W 15s.
Fog signal 1 blast every 30s.
Admiralty number A0030
NGA number 0028
ARLHS number ENG 170
Managing agent

Trinity House[1]

[2]

Wolf Rock Lighthouse is on the Wolf Rock, Cornwall, a single rock located 18 nautical miles (33 km; 21 mi) east of St Mary's, Isles of Scilly and 8 nautical miles (15 km; 9.2 mi) southwest of Land's End, in Cornwall, United Kingdom.[3] The fissures in the rock produce a howling sound in gales, hence the name.[4]

The lighthouse is 41 metres (135 ft) in height and is constructed from Cornish granite prepared at Penzance, on the mainland of Cornwall. It took eight years, from 1861 to 1869, to build due to the treacherous weather conditions that can occur between Cornwall and Scilly.[5] The light can be seen from Land's End by day and night, and is almost exactly halfway between the Lizard and the Isles of Scilly. It has a range of 23 nautical miles (43 km; 26 mi) and was automated in 1988. The lighthouse was the first in the world to be fitted with a helipad.[6]

Geology

Situated between Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, the Wolf Rock is a small plug of phonolitic lava formed during the early part of the Cretaceous period and is unlike any rock exposed on the Cornish mainland.[7]

History

The Gabrielle of Milford Haven was wrecked on the Wolf Rock in 1394. Her cargo, worth £1000, was washed ashore in Cornwall and collected as wreck.[8]

In 1791 Lt Henry Smith obtained permission from Trinity House to build a navigational mark on the rock. He built a 6.1 m (20 ft) high wrought iron daymark, 10 cm (4 in) in diameter and supported by six stays and a metal effigy of a wolf was placed on top. By 1795 the daymark was washed away. In the late 1830s John Thurburn built a beacon, which was completed by 1840, and by November of that year was also washed away. Trinity House builder James Walker constructed a 4.3 m (14 ft) high cone-shaped beacon, which took five years to build. Made of iron plates and filled with concrete rubble, it can still be seen next to the lighthouse. In July 1861, engineer James Douglass surveyed the rock and Walker started to build the lighthouse the following March, based on Smeaton's third Eddystone Lighthouse. Completed on 19 July 1869, the light first shone in January 1870 and in 1879 it was reported that the light flashed red and white.[9] In 1972 it became the first lighthouse in the world to be fitted with a helipad and the lighthouse became automated in July 1988.[4]

The Wolf Rock was the site of a hake (Merluccius merluccius) fishery in the 1870s, especially by fishermen from St Ives with 400 employed in October 1879.[10]

Popular culture

The Wolf Rock Lighthouse features prominently in the classic 1925 Dr Thorndyke detective novel, The Shadow of the Wolf, by R. Austin Freeman.[11]

Gallery

See also


References

  1. ↑ Wolf Rock The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved April 24, 2016
  2. ↑ Wolf Rock Lighthouse Trinity House. Retrieved April 24, 2016
  3. ↑ Admiralty Chart 1148: Isles of Scilly to Lands End.
  4. 1 2 Jones, Robin (2011). Lighthouses of the South West. Wellington, Somerset: Halsgrove. ISBN 978 0 85704 107 4.
  5. ↑ Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of Southwest England (Devon and Cornwall)". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  6. ↑ "Trinity House Wolf Rock". www.trinityhouse.co.uk. Corporation of Trinity House. 2014. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  7. ↑ Hall, Anthony (1994). J T Greensmith, ed. West Cornwall. Geologists' Association Guide No. 19 (Second ed.). The Geologists' Association. ISBN 0 900717 57 2.
  8. ↑ St Levan Local History Group (2004). The Book of St Levan. Tiverton: Halsgrove. ISBN 1 84114 328 6.
  9. ↑ "Wreck of a French Brig. A Resolute and Stubborn Frenchman". The Cornishman (45). 22 May 1879. p. 4.
  10. ↑ "St Ives". The Cornishman (65). 9 October 1879. p. 5.
  11. ↑ Work available at Project Gutenberg Australia (retrieved 12/03/2014)

External links

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