Name and Location

Dunnet Head Lighthouse stands at the north-western tip of the British mainland, marking the entrance to the Pentland Firth and helping vessels navigate the often treacherous waters off Caithness. Its official name is Dunnet Head Lighthouse.

Located at Dunnet Head, Dunnet, Thurso KW14 8XS, Highland, Scotland, United Kingdom, with coordinates 58°40′17″ N, 3°22′35″ W (58.671418, –3.376363). Visitors can access the headland on foot year-round and park their cars about 1 km away.

Construction and History

The lighthouse was constructed in 1831 by David Stevenson, a renowned architect of the famous Stevenson lighthouse-building family. It was built during a particularly hazardous era for shipping, with several wrecks on nearby shore rocks in the early 19th century prompting its construction.

Architecture and Materials

The lighthouse features a cylindrical tower with a flat-roofed lantern gallery, standing at a height of 20 m above base. The focal height is 105 m above sea level, making it one of the highest in the United Kingdom. The structure is built using locally quarried stone masonry with a whitewashed finish.

Light and Navigation

The lighthouse originally used oil lamps but was converted to electric in the 1960s and fully automated in 1989. It features a group of four white flashes every 30 seconds, with a sequence timing of 0.7 s flash + 2 s eclipse (×3), 0.7 s flash, then 21.2 s darkness. The nominal range is 23 nautical miles.

Accessibility and Visiting

The lighthouse is not open to the public for tower entry, but visitors can view and photograph its exterior. The surrounding headland is open to the public year-round on foot, with a moderate cliff-top walk from the nearby car park. There are no visitor center or café facilities on-site.

Notable Views and Landscape

The lighthouse stands amidst a rugged landscape of heather-covered cliffs, dramatic sea stacks, and offshore skerries. Visitors can enjoy panoramic views to Orkney on clear days, as well as spotting breeding seabirds (puffins, guillemots, razorbills) and occasional seals offshore.

Anecdotes and Folklore

Local folklore tells of phantom lights seen offshore on stormy nights, likely misidentified bioluminescent plankton or distant ships. Keepers’ cottages originally housed two keepers and their families, with stone-built dwellings overlooking the Atlantic.

Technical and Operational Details

The lighthouse is managed by the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) and remains an active aid to navigation. It was fully automated in 1989 and no longer has on-site keepers. The current use is as an operational aid to navigation, with keeper’s cottages now privately occupied or vacated.

Further Information

For more information, visit the Northern Lighthouse Board's website (https://www.nlb.org.uk/lighthouses/dunnet-head/) or consult Wikipedia's entry on "Dunnet Head Lighthouse" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunnet_Head_Lighthouse).