LIGHTHOUSES I Carraig Fhada. Port Ellen, Islay, Scotland

An unusual double lighthouse reminds us mental health challenges are as old as the sea

Aside from saving thousands of seafaring souls every year, lighthouses are very wonderful things. These graceful towers powered by oil replaced such rudimentary aids as bells attached to offshore reefs, open fires on headlands and church spires. The sea was a much busier place back in the 18th and 19th centuries so it was of national concern to gradually neuter the dangers of our rocky coastline. As Tom Nancollas says ’As well as seafarers’ lives, national prosperity hinged on safe passage through our shipping lanes, estuaries and ports’.

Port Ellen lighthouse on the Scottish island of Islay is particularly distinctive for having two towers and being square; the only instance of this in bonnie Scotland. There are seven ‘lights’ on Islay which, like many other islands, has a terrible history of wrecks. Port Ellen light is beautifully situated on a small rocky promontory, just outside the village of Port Ellen, on the south of the island. There are only a few steps to it at low tide but this was enough of a distance that 100 years ago two people drowned in rough weather while attempting the crossing. The light was built to help ships get into the harbour to service the distillery just above the shoreline. This area of Islay is to Whisky what Burgundy is to wine and as such, the smell of peat being kilned is all-pervasive. The great whisky houses of Ardbeg, Lagavulin and Laphroaig have all been based in these rocky bays for centuries.

The town of Port Ellen was named by the Laird of Islay, Walter Frederick Campbell, after his wife. He also named Port Charlotte on Islay after his mother. These people with the power to name things! Sadly, his wife, Lady Eleanor Campbell, died in 1832 at the age of 36 after a life suffering from mental illness. Good old Walter honoured her with this lighthouse which is an elegant Georgian design by the Oban-based architect David Hamilton. On the brusque but bright day that The Coracle visited, there was an enigmatic sea mist enveloping the tower but maybe it was just the whisky smoke from the distilleries. Either way, it added a maudlin feel that was pitch-perfect for the epitaph on the side which has a typically Georgian romanticism to it. The wording is possibly too saccharine for our modern tastes and a little too long to fit on your average gravestone.

From the sea, lighthouses are distinguished by their pattern of flashing, so next time you are cruising around the Hebrides in your yacht, look out for Port Ellen’s signature flash every three seconds, with white, red, and green sectors. Watch it well mind. Will our new reliance on GPS mean these amazing structures gradually disappear beneath the waves?

There are some fine books on lighthouses, especially this one on the most famous Scottish lighthouse building family and this more general investigation.