Pendeen Lighthouse

 

Pendeen Lighthouse

Pendeen Lighthouse, also known as Pendeen Watch

 is an active aid to navigation and is sited north of the 

village of Pendeen in west Cornwall, England, 

United Kingdom.

Visit Date March 2023

Click on any image for larger view

Pendeen Lighthouse lies Only six miles north of Land's End and is close to the small and very pretty village of St Just, which thrived during the Tin and Copper mining era in the 1900s.

The construction of the lighthouse started in the 1890s and was designed by Sir Thomas Mathews for Trinity House (Trinity House is a charity dedicated to safeguarding shipping and seafarers) and constructed by Arthur Carkeek from Redruth.

The headland needed to be flattened to accommodate the 17-metre tower and associated buildings.

The light was first lit on 3 October 1900

A foghorn is also sighted here with twin 5-inch sirens driven initially by compressed air from an oil engine.

A five–wick Argand lamp provided the initial power for the lighthouse but the lamp was soon replaced with a 3-50mm dia. mantle lamp

The lens system was a large (first-order) rotating optic made up of two sets of four panels, which displayed a group of four flashes every fifteen seconds, it had a range of 20 nautical miles and is still in use.

Click on any image for a larger view

The coast of this area is treacherous to shipping. Along the coast, the remnants of the once thriving mining in the area can be seen. 

In the 1990s it was decided that the lighthouse would become automated and the last of the lightkeepers left the lighthouse on May 3rd 1995.

The lighthouse, together with the attached keepers' cottages, are Grade II listed,

Built within the North Cornwall Coast within a Site of Special Scientific Interest and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, it is sited on one of the many granite headlands bird watching is popular here as is seal and dolphin spotting. Being north-west facing is a perfect location to watch the sun setting over the Atlantic.

Footer:
Visit Information: -

Google Reference: -
50.16498077682171, -5.671545986771646

What Three Words reference: -
///cheeses.cabs.zooms

OS Details: -
SW 37890 35891 : Altitude:52 m

Additional information.

There is parking here (50.164339321872106, -5.670764521122517) for a half a dozen cars or so and the place is easy to visit.
Off the B3306 the lighthouse is signposted from the road.
There are no facilities at the site.

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