Peninnis Lighthouse

Peninnis Lighthouse stands on Peninnis Head at the southern tip of St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly. Built in 1911, it replaced an earlier light on St Agnes and guides ships into Hugh Town harbour through St Mary’s Sound. The tower rises forty-five feet on a black steel lattice base, with a white gallery and a black domed top. Its original lamp burned oil gas stored in four pressurised tanks, kept full by Trinity House vessels. The rotating optic flashed white every twenty seconds and reached sixteen nautical miles. The lighthouse was later converted to automatic acetylene operation in 1922, then to electricity in 1992. In 2011, for its centenary, it was modernised and its range reduced to nine nautical miles. A new LED lantern now sits on the gallery rail, while the old revolving lens remains inside but unused. Trinity House carried out these changes under its 2010 Aids to Navigation review. Visitors reach the site along coastal paths that skirt the headland’s heather and granite. From the base, views stretch across St Mary’s Sound to St Agnes and the open Atlantic. The lighthouse itself is locked, but the surrounding area offers quiet walks and seabird sightings. The old fuel tanks and clockwork mechanism survive inside the tower as silent reminders of its working past.