Strove Lighthouse
The double lighthouse situated on Dunagree Point south of Inishowen Head built in 1837
|
Name |
Strove, Dunagree Point |
|
Latitude |
55°13.6' North |
|
Longitude |
006°55.7' West |
|
Character |
Fl(2) WRG 10s. |
|
Sectors |
Green
197°-211° (14°), White 211°-249° (38°),
Red 249°-000° (111°), |
|
Light Range |
14 nautical miles |
|
Height of Tower |
23 metres |
| Height of light above MHWS | 28 meters |
Video of Shrove Lighthouse
The lighthouses are overlooking part the Atlantic Ocean and part the entrance to Lough Foyle
Two lighthouses with fixed white lights forming leading lights were established at Dunagree Point, Inishowen, in 1837. These lights guided vessels into Lough Foyle and kept them clear of the Tuns Bank. Two dwellings were built for the two Keepers. An auxiliary light, exhibited through the east-facing window on the floor below the lantern, was established in the front tower (Inishowen East) in 1851, to distinguish the front tower from the rear tower (Inishowen West). In 1870-71 the height of the rear light was raised by 7.6 metres (25 feet) by means of a cast iron tower extension, and a red sector light over the Tuns Bank was shown from an opening in the bottom part of the cast iron tower extension just above the granite blocking of the original tower.
In 1900 a siren fog signal was established and a third dwelling with two storeys was built to accommodate two additional Assistant Keepers required for fog signal duties.
Following a fire in the fog signal engine room the siren fog signal was replaced with a diaphone in 1942.
In 1932 the lights in the rear tower were converted to unwatched; the character of both the white main light and the red auxiliary light was changed from fixed to two flashes every six seconds. The unwatched lights were fuelled by acetylene which was made in a carbide-to-water generator which was refilled every week or so. The front tower continued to have a fixed white light which remained watched. As a result of these changes the staff at the station was reduced to a Principal Keeper with two Assistant Keepers
The larger lighthouse is overlooking part the Atlantic Ocean and part the entrance to Lough Foyle
By the late 1950s mains electricity became available. In
1961 the leading lights were discontinued and in 1962 a new electric white,
red and green sectored light with a character of two flashes every 10
seconds was established in the rear tower. The lantern on the front tower
was subsequently removed.
The station was automated and converted to unwatched in 1979. The diaphone
fog signal was replaced by an electric horn located on the front tower,
controlled by a fog detector. The Keepers were withdrawn and an Attendant
was appointed in charge of the station.
During the years before the station was automated the Keepers lived at the station with their families all the year round. Each Keeper was allowed 24 hours relaxation leave every week, from noon until noon the following day. The three Keepers took their relaxation leave on successive days and a local Temporary Keeper was employed to replace them for the three days each week. The Temporary Keeper was also employed when one of the Keepers was on his three weeks annual leave, or was off sick, though sometimes a Supernumerary Keeper was sent from Baily Lighthouse if the absent Keeper was likely to be away for some time.
Michael O'Donnell of Shroove, Inishowen, has written
about his father Willie O'Donnell who was the Temporary Keeper at Inishowen
Lighthouse. Willie took over from his uncle James O'Donnell who had been
doing the job for around 60 years and, at the age of 85, was getting a bit
stiff for going up the west tower to put on the light. 'No early retirement
in those days!' Michael comments.
Willie was 17 years of age when he took over from his uncle and he continued
as Temporary Keeper until retiring at the age of 75. He got on well with
nearly all of the Principal Keepers stationed at Inishowen during that time.
Oil for the station was landed in barrels from the lighthouse tenders by
ship's boat at Portsallagh and brought to the station by contractor's horse
and cart. In a notebook Willie recorded that he was paid £4: 2s: 10d for
drawing 53 barrels of oil, and helping with racking off the oil into the
tanks at the station. For drawing 1½ tons of carbide for the west light he
was paid 17s: 6d. 'That was good money in those days' says Michael, 'A pound
went a long way then.' There was no waste in those days either. When the
carbide was spent the Keepers put it in barrels and used it to whitewash the
walls.
The Keepers at Inishowen kept hens, as did Keepers at many other stations. Willie used to tell a story that when Tommy Lawlor was Principal Keeper at Inishowen, in addition to his hens, he had two geese to fatten for Christmas. He kept them all in the big garden beside the west light. About a month before Christmas Tommy and his family went away on holidays. Willie and the two Assistant Keepers took it in turn to feed the hens. One of them forgot to close the gate. Next morning the hens and the two geese were all over the station. In the panic to round them up the geese rushed down the steps onto the boat landing where they were washed into the Lough and up the river with the flood tide, never to be seen again.
When Tommy came back and was told his Christmas dinner was gone he was a cross man but after a couple of days he saw the funny side of it. Years later it was found out that the geese had landed at Greencastle. A man with a big family caught them and had a good Christmas; so, as Michael says, it's an ill wind that doesn't blow good.
The Commissioners' annual inspection was always a big day. When it was over
and the Commissioners had gone the Keepers went to the pub-some of the
locals used to say it was to calm their nerves but, according to Michael, no
matter about that, they kept the station very clean and tidy and kept a
sharp lookout. 'They missed nothing.'
The old people told a story that the first fog signal at
Inishowen was responsible for a miracle. A retired man lived in one of the
big old houses around Greencastle. He had been injured working for a big
company in England, and was in a wheelchair. As there were no cars at that
time he had a man with a horse and carriage to drive him around. One day he
was down at the White Bay beside the lighthouse when a thick fog came in.
The foghorn started up. There was a ship out in the bay coming in. When the
fog signal is sounding and there is a ship in the bay the echo of the fog
signal comes back off the ship. The man in the wheelchair asked the driver
of the carriage what the sound was coming in over the water.
The driver didn't know, so he called a local man over to ask him. The local
man realised they knew nothing about the sea, so he decided to take a rise
out of the two of them. He told them it was a sea monster. As the ship came
closer the echo got louder-as there was no radar in those days the ship came
in so far and let go the anchor. When he heard the sound of the anchor cable
going out over the windlass the man in the wheelchair asked what that sound
was. 'That is the sea monster grinding its teeth. It smells human flesh' the
local man said, making believe that he was afraid. 'The last time it came in
it swallowed two people alive on the beach.' The driver took fright and ran
for the carriage. The next thing, the retired man jumped out of his
wheelchair and ran up the beach into the carriage. Horse and carriage took
off at a top gallop.
A week later after dark they came back for the chair. The old boy was not half as bad as he was making out. He would have lost his big pension if he had been found out.
Story told by Michael O'Donnell
History of the Strove Lighthouses
Early Photos of Strove Lighthouse
Originally the
two lighthouses built at Dunagree Point, 1 km south of Inishowen Head, were used
as harbour lights to guide vessels into Lough Foyle and to lead them clear of
the Tuns Bank.
Applications for a light at the entrance to Lough Foyle were made in January and
March 1832 by the Derry Ballast Office and Chamber of Commerce respectively. The
Board of the Corporation for Improving the Port of Dublin instructed Mr George
Halpin, Inspector of Lighthouses, to proceed to Inishowen and check the
locality.
After his return he reported that to obtain the desired object there should be
two lights so as to clear the Tuns Bank, a spit of sand lying to the north east
of Macgilligan's Point. The Board concurred and referred the report and
correspondence to the Elder Brethren of Trinity House who gave their Statutory
Sanction in June 1833 stipulating that the lights were to be considered as local
and tolls should only be charged on vessels entering the Lough for trade or
shelter. Sanction from the Lord Lieutenant was received the following month and
by May 1834 Inspector Halpin reported that measures should be taken to obtain
legal possession of the land required. An enquiry was held in Moville on 4th
August 1834 to value the land and the result was that the fee should be
purchased over a period of 20 years at £10.00 per annum.
Three proposals were received in May 1835 to build the two towers designed by Mr
Halpin and that of Mr James Pettigrew of Dorset Street, Dublin, for £368, was
selected. The two Keeper's dwellings and the rest of the station were built by
the workmen of the Board again to Mr Halpin's design and under his supervision.
The twin towers bearing east and west were of cut stone, 153 yards (140m) apart.
The overall height of each tower was 49 feet (15m) and they were painted white.
The fixed white lights were 67 feet (20.4m) above high water and were
established on 1st December 1837.
Four years later the Derry Ballast Office wrote to the Corporation enclosing
requests from numerous mariners for a distinction to be made between the two
lights. George Halpin pointed out that the west or inner light solely formed a
leading light with the principal east light and did not show so much to seaward.
He suggested placing a second light in the east tower in the room below the
lantern. The Board agreed and ordered that the second light in the east tower
should be established. In February 1847, after a further five years, the Ballast
Office
in Derry enquired about the distinguishing light to be
shown at the east tower.
George
Halpin
reported that the lamp and apparatus had been prepared and would be set up early
in 1847. Two and a half years later the Derry Ballast Office again reminded the
Corporation of the extra light, this time action was taken and the second light
was exhibited on 1st January 1851 through the east facing window on the floor
under the lantern 17 feet (5.1m) below the main light.
A letter from the Board of Trade was received in March 1854 enclosing another
letter from the Admiralty which stated that the two lights at Inishowen were
ill-adapted for the purpose of clearing the Tuns Bank due to their being at the
same elevation. The Admiralty's remedy was to raise the west tower.
The immediate reaction did not go beyond two reports by Inspector Halpin and a
request from the Board of Trade for an estimate for raising the west tower and a
suggestion to lower the east.
Having heard about raising the inner tower the Derry Harbour Commissioners, in
their letter in June 1860, mentioned to the Corporation the difficulty mariners
had in distinguishing between the two towers and called for expediency in
raising the tower. The matter was referred to the Inspector who, eleven months
later, reported favourably to raising the tower which in turn received
approbation from the Inspecting Committee in June 1861.
Yet again the subject was long fingered and early in 1864 the Derry Harbour
Commissioners enquired if a decision had been made on the inner tower. The
Inspecting Committee agreed that the introduction of a second light in the east
tower had proved insufficient and that the two lights appeared as one even at a
short distance but suggested that the problem may be overcome by altering the
west light to red. The Board referred the subject to the Inspecting Committee on
Tour who surprisingly did not report until September 1867. They said that they
wanted to observe an improved light at Warren Point, 2.4km further up the Lough,
under the jurisdiction of the Harbour Commissioners. But, according to the
Committee, this had not improved the Inishowen situation, consequently the
suggestion of a red light for the inner tower should be brought to the notice of
the Elder Brethren who, the following month, sanctioned without question the
change from white to red.
The Board of Trade conversely were not happy and they suggested abandoning the
west and establishing a red sector in the east over the Tuns Bank. In May the
following year, 1868, the Inspecting Committee on Tower recommended taking
evidence on the spot with the Elder Brethren, pilots and others as soon as
possible and report to the Board who by then had become the Commissioners of
Irish Lights. Three months later Trinity House approved the Inspection
Committee's report in which the inner or west tower was to be raised 25 feet
(7.6m) and the Tuns Bank was to be marked by an Argand lamp with a red shade
from an opening in the tower. Also modifications were to be made by the Derry
Harbour Commissioners to Warren Point light to back up the changes to the made
at Inishowen. Sanction was received from both Trinity House and the Board of
Trade in September 1868.
Engineer-in-Chief J. S. Sloane submitted plans and an estimate in June 1869
which were sanctioned by the Board of Trade in August of that year and, in March
1870, was Mr E. Toomey's tender to supply the iron work for heightening the west
tower. This apparently was completed early in 1871 because the Inspector Captain
E. H. Hawes suggested in February that the lower or second light at the east
tower should be extinguished and Trinity House sanctioned its discontinuance two
months later.
The red sector light shown over the Tuns Bank from the west tower was through a
glazed opening in the cast iron tower extension 25 feet (7.6m) below the main
light, just above the granite blocking of the original tower.
Towards the end of 1871 an application from the Derry Harbour Commissioners
requesting a fog gun was referred to the Inspecting Committee. The outcome was
that the Board informed the Derry Commissioners that they would apply to the
Board of Trade if the Derry Commissioners would undertake to pay the expense.
Nothing further was done on the fog signal subject until October 1888 when a
joint letter from three shipping companies urging the Board for the necessity of
a fog signal at Inishowen Head. Another letter from the Derry Chamber of
Commerce stating that in the interest of commerce and safety of human lives the
subject should be dealt with promptly. They were informed that the Board were
unable to place a fog signal on Inishowen Head as it was a local matter. The
Derry Port and Harbour Commissioners expressed disappointment at the reply and
drew attention to the increased trade of the Foyle; they too were informed that
the Board had gone fully into the subject and regretted they were unable to give
any other reply.
Twelve months later the Chamber of Commerce again drew the attention of the
Board to the requirement for a fog signal at Inishowen. The Board referred them
to previous correspondence. Not to be put off the Chamber wrote to the Board in
February 1890 stating that a fog signal should be borne by the Mercantile Marine
Fund and they would also bring the question before Parliament.
Over five years passed without incident then, in October 1895, the Harbour
Commissioners again called the attention of the Board to the necessity for a fog
signal. The Board referred the matter to the Inspecting Committee who in turn
referred the Derry Chamber of Commerce to previous correspondence.
Between 1896 and 1900 considerable correspondence and discussion took place on
the fog signal subject and the Board even went as far as obtaining both Trinity
House and Board of Trade sanction to establish a siren fog signal, discontinue
the west light and improve the east. Strong local objections were raised at the
prospect of losing their leading lights although they appreciated the proposed
establishment of a fog signal and improvement to the east light. The final
result was that the project was reconsidered and the Inspecting Committee
recommended to Trinity House to leave the lights as they are and to cancel their
sanction as far as the lights were concerned.
During July 1900 a Notice to Mariners was issued to state that a siren fog
signal with a character of two 2 second blasts; one low, one high, every minute
(2 x 3 x 2 x 53) would be established on 1st October 1900. A third, two storey
dwelling was built to accommodate the additional two assistant keepers required
for fog signal duty, although only one was appointed until 1912.
Following Inspector Dean's suggestion in November 1907 that black bands should
be painted around the towers to make them more conspicuous the Inspecting
Committee recommended one black band on the east tower and two on the west.
Trinity House gave their sanction in July 1908 and the bands were added to the
towers in the summer of 1909.
In May 1929 Inspector Davis suggested discontinuing the auxiliary light but the
Inspecting Committee recommended in September that an acetylene plant be
installed and both the main and auxiliary lights at the west be made unwatched.
This was carried out and the Inspector reported that the conversion to unwatched
acetylene took place on 5th March 1932. The main light character changed from
fixed white to two white flashes every 6 seconds and the auxiliary light from
fixed red to two red flashes every 6 seconds, the east light remained manned and
fixed.
The keeper strength was reduced by one Assistant Keeper to a Principal Keeper
and two Assistant Keepers.
On 19th January 1941 a fire in the fog signal engine room damaged roof timbers
and destroyed a five gallon oil supply tank. The cost, by November 1941, was
over £1,000 to make good and repair damage and remove the large oil tanks out of
the engine room. The Engineer, Mr Tonkin, proposed alterations for improving the
fog signal and the decision was that the siren be replaced by a "G" type
diaphone and the two 41 year old Campbell engines and compressors be replaced by
Ruston engines driving Reavell compressors. The diaphone with a character of one
2 second blast every 30 seconds came into operation on 18th September 1942.
The Tuns buoy was moved so the red sector was extended by 10° in June 1950.
With the spread of rural electrification the Inspecting Committee recommended in
1953 that the lights be converted to electric. Progress was slow and overhead
cables were not in the area until 1958. The dwellings were the first to be
converted to electric. Meanwhile a rethink had been made on the lights in so
much as the Inspecting Committee in 1957 decided to abandon the front light and
auxiliary light and replace the acetylene light in the rear tower by an electric
light in a catadioptric lens with a red sector over the Tuns Bank.
The leading lights were discontinued on 15th May 1961 and a temporary light was
established on the balcony of the east tower whilst alterations were made to the
west tower light.
The lantern glazing had to be increased from 90° to 180° and the old French
500mm optic from Blackrock (Sligo) was refurbished by Stone Chance. By 9th July
the temporary light on the east and the auxiliary light in the west tower were
discontinued and the new electric light from the rear tower came into operation
with a red sector over the Tuns. The character was Gp Fl (2) WR every 10
seconds. The lantern on the east tower was removed subsequently.
A green sector was introduced to the north of the white so as not to be confused
with the red to the south, on 14th December 1962 having been recommended by the
Inspecting Committee in 1961. Since 1978 the light has been exhibited in poor
visibility when the fog signal is sounding.
The station was automated on 31st August 1979 when the Keepers were withdrawn
and replaced by an Attendant. The diaphone was replaced by an electric fog horn
controlled by a fog detector. With a character of two blasts every 30 seconds.
The light is currently a 250mm catadioptric cylindrical refractor with 290mm
spherical mirror and electric L11 lamps in a LC15 lampchanger.
If the electricity supply fails a 12kW standby generator automatically takes
over until the supply is re-established. Consideration was given early in 1979
to make the station more compact by moving the cast iron extension on the west
tower to the east tower but the Inspecting Committee on Tour in 1979 decided
against this recommendation.
In May 2007 the fog signal was permanently disestablished.
The light continues to be exhibited in conditions of poor visibility during
daylight hours.
The Attendant lives in the house nearest to the lighthouse
and the other two dwellings have been converted into staff holiday houses.