Wolf Rock Lighthouse
Wolf Rock Lighthouse
|
|
 Wolf Rock Lighthouse
|
|
| Location | Land's End, Cornwall, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Year first constructed | 1861 |
| Year first lit | 1870 |
| Automated | 1988 |
| Height | 41 m (135 ft) |
| Focal height | 34 m (112 ft) |
| Intensity | 378,000 Candela |
| Range | 23 nautical miles (43 km; 26 mi) |
| Characteristic | White flash every 15 seconds |
| Fog signal | 1 blast every 30 seconds |
| ARLHS number | ENG 170 |
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.[1] The fissures in the rock produce a howling sound in gales, hence the name.[2]
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.[3] 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.[4]
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.[5]
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.[6]
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. In 1972 it became the first lighthouse in the world to be fitted with a helipad and the lighthouse became automated in July 1988.[2]
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.[7]
References
- ↑ Admiralty Chart 1148: Isles of Scilly to Lands End.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Work available at Project Gutenberg Australia (retrieved 12/03/2014)
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wolf Rock Lighthouse. |
