East Coast

Place of the lighthouse

Fife Ness (Scottish Gaelic: Rubha Fiobha) is a headland that forms the most north-eastern point of Fife, known as the East Neuk. The North Carr Reef, located just before this point in the sea (see also the blue arrow on the map in the right column), a dangerous rock, is situated at the turning point for ships entering the Firth of Forth from the north, but also dangerous for ships from the south to the Firth of Tay. Before this rock was marked, the North Carr Reef was responsible for the loss of at least sixteen ships with many casualties between 1800 and 1809. This Fife Ness location is home of a HM Coast Guard station.

Building of the Lighthouse

The Northern Lighthouse Board has always tried to bring the dangerous North Carr Reef to the attention of seafarers. It turned out to be impossible to build a lighthouse on this reef, as was done on Bell Rock. At first, a floating buoy was placed. The NLB later decided to replace this floating buoy with a tidal controlled clock tower built from Fife sandstone. This construction was also unsuccessful. Finally, a cast iron beacon designed by Robert Stevenson was chosen and installed on the North Carr Reef in September 1821.

Robert Stevenson, however, felt that beacons, without a light or bell, would be a less good solution for marking reefs to warn shipping. He believed that the situation at Carr Rock could be improved by placing an additional lighthouse on mainland Fife or on the Isle of May.

These lighthouses recommended by Robert Stevenson were not built for cost reasons. In 1843 it was finally decided to build a low lighthouse, in line with another already existing high lighthouseon on the Isle of May. This lighthouse was positioned so that when, coming from the north, the two lights were seen on the Isle of May, one directly above the other, mariners knew they were on the right course with respect to the North Carr Reef.

In the end, the beacon at the North Carr Reef and the low lighthouse on the Isle of May, proved unsuccessful. That is why in 1880 it was decided to anchor a series of lightvessels at the North Carr Reef. The location for the lightvessels was 1 NM (~1.8 km) east of the North Carr Reef, approximately 10.5 NM (~19 km) from the Bell Rock Lighthouse and 7 NM (~13 km) from May Island . The installation of lightvessels also made it unnecessary to improve the low lighthouse on the Isle of May.

The construction of a lighthouse at Fife Ness is the latest in a series of initiatives (beacons, lightvessels) that the NLB has undertaken over more than 150 years to make the treacherous reef of the North Carr well visible.

Fife Ness Lighthouse is amongst the first Northern Lighthouse Board lighthouses in Scotland not designed by a member of the famous Stevenson family. The Fife Ness Lighthouse is designed by Peter H. Hyslop, Engineer (1955 -1972) and Engineer-in-Chief 1972-1978) of the Northern Lighthouse Board. Hyslop also designed other major lighthouses in Scotland like the lighthouses of Strathy Point (1958) (1958) and Point of Fethaland, Shetland (1977) and on the Isle of Man, the manned new lighthouse Calf of Man in (1968).

The Fife Ness lighthouse is not a lighthouse in the traditional sense, a tall tower surrounded by houses for the lighthouse keepers and a walled garden. However, Hyslop's design of the lighthouse in Fife Ness is clearly inspired by Stevenson's 'house style' with architectural details including the diagonal windows, parapet and of course painted in the Northern Lighthouse Colours.

The building makes use of 20th-century adjustments in materials and fits into its landscape context. Hyslop appears to have designed a building similar in style to the area's WWII coastal defences such as the bunker directly in front of the lighthouse. This was part of the network of defences for Crail Airfield. (see below)

In 1975 the lighthouse was built five kilometres' northeast of Crail and immediately automated. It is a single-storey brick building, 5 meters high, with a flat roof and plastered walls with painted decoration. The lighthouse light is housed in a transparent extension of the engine room. The roof is supported by large cantilevered concrete beams, along with black painted diagonals of hollow stainless steel tubes. These tubes act as a framework in which the transparent (polycarbonate) glazing is placed. The light has a spread to the northeast of about 240 degrees. With a red sector pointing to the treacherous navigational hazard of North Carr Reef. The light is Isophase Withe (15NM ~27.7 km)/ Red (12NM ~22.2 km ) every 10 seconds. (Iso WR 10s 12m 15-12m)

Additional information - Statement of Special Interest

Fife Ness Lighthouse is of interest as it belongs to the last phase of major lighthouse construction in Scotland and is one of only 15 built during the period 1900-1977. Of these, only five (including Fife Ness) were built after the First World War. Fife Ness is also unusual as it is the first to be built as an un-manned station. It therefore forms an important chapter in the story of Scotland's lighthouses.

During the 1890s, Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) employed more than 600 lighthouse keepers around Scotland. These numbers generally reduced in response to advances in lighting technology and communications that allowed lighthouse operation to become increasingly automated. In addition to the advantages electrical lighting brought over oil, paraffin and acetylene gas technology in terms of power output and reduced requirement for fuel storage, electrical lighting could be controlled with a switch and this reduced the need to have keepers perpetually on watch. Fife Ness is the first major lighthouse to be built as an un-manned station.

Crail Airfield Bunker

The monument comprises a bunker of Second World War date located to the east of the lighthouse at Foreland Head, some 700 meter north east of Crail Airfield. The bunker has stone walls, steel lintels, and a concrete roof into which stone was set for camouflage.

Crail Airfield and its associated defences is one of the best-preserved abandoned airfields in Scotland. Although the site was established in 1918, the surviving structures and runways date from the Second World War. The bunker is well-preserved.