Signal Tower, Arbroath

Last day of our Digital Photography class today and we went on a Photoshoot to Arbroath Harbour. My blip is of the Signal Tower.

The Tower stands on the shore at the mouth of Arbroath Harbour. It was completed in 1813 and consisted of the lightkeepers' houses, signal tower and sea wall. The Lighthouse was automated in 1988.

When the keepers left, the Tower became Council houses and remained so until the 1970s when it became Arbroath's museum. Amongst its many exbibits is a room dedicated to the building of the Lighthouse, and downstairs in a specially converted outhouse one can see the massive lens of the last manual lamp, and hear the keeper describe a typical shift.

On Saturday, 30th July, 1814, during his six-week tour of Scotland and the Isles, Walter Scott visited the Signal Tower,and wrote of it: "We visited the appointments of the lighthouse establishment - a handsome tower, with two wings. These contain the lodgings of the keepers of the light - very handsome indeed. and very clean. They might be thought too handsome, were it not of consequence to give those men, intrusted with a duty so laborious and slavish, a consequence in the eyes of the public and in their own”.