CONTENTS

Preface to the 3rd edition

Acknowledgements

Map

Introduction

1 Out of the Darkness – a history of the British lighthouse service

2 Eddystone – the beginning

3 The Skerries – the price of generosity

4 The Smalls – a lighthouse on stilts

5 Longships – the Land’s End light

6 The Longstone – Grace Darling’s light

7 Bell Rock – the start of The Stevensons

8 Skerryvore – the noblest of all

9 Bishop Rock – the Blue Riband light

10 Muckle Flugga – the northern light

11 Wolf Rock – the curse of the Cornish wreckers

12 Dubh Artach – Guardian of the Hebrides

13 Chicken Rock – a Manx crag

14 Flannan Isles – the Marie Celeste lighthouse

15 Rockall – “the most isolated rock on the surface of the Earth”

16 Rock lights – a new era begins

Bibliography

Appendix

Index

image

The present Eddystone lighthouse and the stump of Smeaton’s tower under heavy skies
(Author)