Kinnaird Head Castle Lighthouse And Museum of Scottish Lighthouses

Kinnaird Head Castle Lighthouse And Museum of Scottish Lighthouses

Kinnaird Head Castle Lighthouse And Museum of Scottish Lighthouses
Fraserburgh
Aberdeenshire
Scotland
AB43 9DU

Tel: 01346 511 022
E-Mail: hs.members@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Web: Kinnaird Head Castle Lighthouse And Museum of Scottish Lighthouses

About Kinnaird Head Castle Lighthouse And Museum of Scottish Lighthouses

Castle at the head of the point of land

Kinnaird Head (cinn na h’airde in Gaelic) means ‘at the head of the point of land’. One look at the map is enough to show that this particular point of land beside Fraserburgh is no ordinary promontory. It lies on Scotland’s NE shoulder at the place where the coastline turns through 90 degrees. It is not clear why the Frasers of Philorth (the ancient name of the parish) built a castle on this exposed headland in the mid-16th century. Perhaps they never saw it as a family residence – their main seat lay inland – but as a focal point in their grand scheme to develop the village of Faithlie into a thriving port. They succeeded, for Faithlie is now the bustling port of Fraserburgh.

The Frasers would have seen the opportunities presented by Scotland’s growing trade with continental Europe. They would also have seen how pivotal Kinnaird Head was to ships attempting to navigate around the NE coast, and their castle may have served from the outset as a navigation beacon. Two centuries later, in 1786, the newly created Northern Lighthouse Board recognised that same importance and chose the Frasers’ old tower as the location for one of its first four lighthouses. Kinnaird was the first to be lit, in 1787. Both the tower and the lighthouse it supports are still standing – the most unlikely of bedfellows!

New wine in old bottles

This combination of old tower house and new lighthouse is unparalleled. It is also lucky to have survived. In 1824, the great lighthouse engineer Robert Stevenson called for the tower to be demolished and replaced by a purpose-built structure. That the grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson was persuaded to change his mind is probably down to another of Scotland’s literary giants, Sir Walter Scott.

In 1814, Scott accompanied Stevenson on an expedition around Scotland on the Board’s ship Pharos. His antiquarian sentiments seem to have convinced Stevenson to demolish only the structures around the tower. The interior of the tower was also gutted. Other than the stone-vaulted ground storey, which was retained, floors were ripped out, new doors and windows added, and the entire top storey removed and replaced by the new lantern. The old stairs were replaced by a fine new spiral stair.

A number of 'firsts'

Kinnaird Head was the first operational lighthouse built in Scotland by the Commissioners of Northern Lights. Its first light, designed by the Edinburgh engineer Thomas Smith, was the most powerful light of its day, with 17 reflectors arranged in three horizontal tiers giving a range of over 12 miles. It became the first British location for a radio beacon, in 1929.