Noss Head Lighthouse

Noss Head Lighthouse stands at the tip of a windswept peninsula three miles north-east of Wick, overlooking Sinclairs Bay on Scotland’s north coast. Built in 1849, the white cylindrical tower rises eighteen metres and carries a single gallery topped by a lantern with a black cupola. A steep stone stair of seventy-six steps leads to the light. Beside the tower are two keeper’s cottages and other low buildings enclosed by a high stone wall. The lighthouse marks the first use of diagonal glass panes in a lantern room, a design later adopted across all Northern Lighthouse Board towers. The lighthouse was commissioned by the Northern Lights Commissioners to guide ships along this rocky coast. Construction was overseen by Alan Stevenson, uncle of Robert Louis Stevenson, who introduced the diagonal panes to strengthen the lantern and reduce light interruption. During building, local labourers laid an access road from Wick, paying three shillings and sixpence a day to ease hardship caused by the Highland potato famine. In 1987 the light became automatic, and the original Fresnel lens and drive were removed to Wick Heritage Centre where they remain in working order. The tower itself stayed in the care of the Northern Lighthouse Board while the surrounding land and buildings passed into private hands. Visitors reach the site along a narrow road that ends at the compound gate. Inside the walled area the white tower dominates, its black cupola standing out against the sky. The adjacent cottages, now privately owned, have been restored and extended by architect Hugo Hardy, preserving the character of the 19th-century station. From the gallery around the lantern the view stretches over Sinclairs Bay and the North Sea, taking in the rugged coastline and distant hills. The restored engine house and stable block add to the sense of a working maritime heritage site.