Bull Point Lighthouse

Bull Point Lighthouse stands on a headland one mile north of Mortehoe village on Devon’s northern coast. It overlooks the rocky shoreline that stretches between Mortehoe, Woolacombe and Ilfracombe. The first stone tower was built in 1879 after local clergy, ship-owners and merchants asked Trinity House for a light. It was a two-storey round tower of local stone and Blue Lias lime, topped by a cylindrical lantern. Inside, a Douglass six-wick oil lamp turned inside a revolving Chance Brothers optic to give three white flashes every thirty seconds. A fixed red sector warned ships away from the nearby Morte Stone hazard. The lighthouse once had a fog siren powered by two 12 horsepower caloric engines from Brown & Co of New York. In 1919 a twin-siren system with Rayleigh trumpets replaced the original. Electricity reached the tower in 1960, bringing an 800,000 candlepower light visible for eighteen nautical miles. A motor-driven optic and twin-diaphone fog signal were installed at the same time. In 1972 the headland slipped, forcing Trinity House to use a spare tower from Braunton Sands while a new lighthouse was built inland. The present tower, completed in 1974 and opened in 1975, is eleven metres tall and still shows the same 800,000 candela light. Its foghorn was switched off in 1988, though the diaphone machinery remains inside. The old keepers’ cottages now serve as holiday lets for visitors. A public footpath leads close to the site, but the compound itself is private. From the path there are wide views across the rocky coast and out to sea.