Chart № 5 · Sailing directions
Visiting Lighthouses
Lighthouses are built in the most exposed places on any coast, on purpose. That is what makes them wonderful to visit and occasionally dangerous. These are the notes I wish someone had given me before my first twenty.
When to go
Most lighthouses that open to the public do so from around Easter until the end of October, often with shorter hours in the shoulder months and closures in strong wind. Always check the opening times on the day, and expect the top gallery to close if the wind gets up. For the lights themselves, though, the best season is the one when it gets dark at a civilised hour.
| Coast | Best months | Why |
|---|---|---|
| North Sea | May–June, September | Long light evenings, quieter islands, ferries still on summer timetables. August is busy on the Wadden islands. |
| Atlantic Europe | April–May, late September | Clear spring air for long views. Autumn gales are spectacular but often close galleries and cancel boat trips. |
| Baltic | June–August | Short season; many towers open only in summer. Midsummer nights are nearly light all night, so come in August to see the lamps working. |
| Mediterranean | March–May, October | Mild, uncrowded, and the cape roads are open to cars outside high summer. |
| US East Coast | May, September–October | Avoid the peak of hurricane season if you can; climbs often close in high heat. |
| California | September–October | The fog is thinnest in early autumn. Spring and summer can be one long grey day. |
| New Zealand & Australia | November, March | Shoulder seasons: warm enough, before or after school holidays. |
Open days worth planning around
- International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend, the third full weekend of August. Radio amateurs set up stations at hundreds of lighthouses, and many towers open specially.
- Heritage days in September. Most European countries hold a heritage weekend when monuments that are normally closed open their doors. In the Netherlands it is Open Monumentendag, usually the second weekend of September.
- Anniversaries. Lighthouse societies often hold an open day on the date a light was first shown. Local tourist offices know.
Photographing lighthouses
Every lighthouse is photographed from the same two spots. Find a third. Here is what has worked for me.
Shoot the blue hour
The twenty minutes after sunset, when the sky is still deep blue and the lamp has just come on, give you both the tower and the light. Full darkness turns the tower into a silhouette.
Time it to the period
Read the characteristic first. For Fl(2) W 10s, an exposure of exactly ten seconds catches one full group of flashes; for a rotating optic, it can draw the beam. A little mist or sea spray makes the beam visible.
Use a long lens from far away
A telephoto from a kilometre or two compresses the tower against the waves or the cliffs behind it, and shows how the light sits in its landscape. Harbour walls and opposite headlands are your friends.
Respect the dark
Don't point torches out to sea or at the lantern; a stray light on a headland can confuse a skipper. And check the rules before flying a drone: many lighthouses sit inside nature reserves or near coastguard stations.
Staying safe
I have had more close calls on the way to lighthouses than in seventeen years on a ferry bridge. None of them were dramatic, which is the point: they are always ordinary situations that turn quickly.
Tides and causeways
Some lights are reached across sand, shingle or a causeway that floods twice a day. Download the tide table for the exact place, not the nearest big port, and plan to be back on the mainland at least an hour before the causeway is due to cover. The tide comes in faster than you can walk on wet sand.
Cliffs, wet rocks and big waves
The rocks around lighthouses are polished, weedy and often wet with spray. Every few years someone is swept off the boulders at Peggy's Cove or a Breton headland by a wave much bigger than the ones before it. Stay off the black, wet rock. Never turn your back on the sea. Keep children close on cliff paths, and keep well back from undercut edges, even where there is no fence.
Climbing the tower
Stairs are narrow and steep, with low lintels, and the last flight is often a ladder. Wear shoes with a grip, keep one hand on the rail, and leave your rucksack at the bottom if they offer. If you are uneasy about heights, the gallery of many towers has a solid parapet; the lantern room itself usually does not. Many towers have a minimum height or age for children, set for good reasons.
Weather
Headland weather changes in minutes. Check the marine forecast, not just the town forecast, and tell someone where you are going if the walk is remote. If a boat trip is cancelled for weather, the skipper is right, even if the sun is shining in the harbour.
A few manners
- Many keepers' cottages are now homes or holiday lets. A lighthouse being famous does not make its garden public.
- Buy the postcard. Most towers open to the public are run by small trusts and volunteers. The shop, the entrance fee and the donation box keep the stairs repaired.
- Talk to the volunteers. Many are former keepers, fishermen or coastguards, and they know things no book will tell you.
- Leave the lens alone. Historic optics are fragile and irreplaceable. One fingerprint means another careful clean for somebody.
- Sleep in one, at least once. Dozens of stations rent out keepers' quarters. I have done it three times, and each night was worth the trip on its own.
Packing list
This is my actual list, refined over nine years. Tick things off as you pack; the ticks are remembered only in your own browser, on your own device.
0 of 16 packed