chicken rock

I’ve got a massively busy day ahead, including several (or more) experiments in the lab and then a fairly long drive later. There will be beer and brandy at the end of the fairly long drive, but that doesn’t help you much if you’re after a 6000 miles… blog post.

In times such as these, I head for the quota photo cabinet, usually immediately delving into the lighthouse section, and today is no exception.

This is the Chicken Rock lighthouse, perched (appropriately enough) upon the Chicken Rock (well, where else would you put it?), just off the SW coast of the Isle of Man (and we’ve seen it before on the blog).

The 44 metres (144 ft) lighthouse is constructed of tapered granite and was designed by David and Thomas Stevenson, after the lights on the Calf of Man were insufficient at warning ships away. Construction finished in December 1874, with the first official lighting day taking place on 1 January 1875.

Thomas, by the way, was the father of famous Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson.

If you’re interested, there’s some interesting Chicken Rock Lighthouse history here.

My Mum and Dad recently jumped on a special ferry from Douglas in the Isle of Man to… er… Douglas… in the Isle of Man.
This “round the Island” trip is a chance for locals to go… er… round the island and see it from a different perspective.

Here’s one of the photos they took:

This is the Chicken Rock lighthouse off the south west coast of the Isle of Man. Wikipedia tells us:

The 0.1 hectare rock is home to a 44 m (144 ft) lighthouse which was designed by engineers David and Thomas Stevenson after it was realised that the lights on the Calf of Man were not sufficient to warn ships away. Construction of this tapered granite structure was completed in December 1874 and the first official lighting day was on 1 January 1875.

So not quite as old as the Cape Agulhas light, but given that this one is built on a rock that is completely submerged at high tide and which lies 4.5km off the mainland (and about 7.5km from the nearest port), I think that’s a pretty amazing feat of engineering for that time.