Description
Description
Built in 1979 and designed by R J MacKay, Ve Skerries Lighthouse is an automated lighthouse constructed in pre-stressed, reinforced concrete and anchored into the bedrock using post-tensioned steel bars. It is located on the remote and exposed Ve Skerries, northwest of Papa Stour, southwest of St Magnus Bay on the west coast of Shetland.
The tower is 16 metres (50 feet) tall and stands on a round, tapered concrete plinth, accessed by concrete steps from the skerry. There is a concentric rail around the base of the lighthouse and two reinforced concrete galleries with railings and handrails. External metal ladders with safety cages connect the galleries to the lantern. The lantern room has a battery-powered light with a range of 11 nautical miles. The triangular storm panes are made from polycarbonate sheeting.
There are some solar panels attached to the gallery railings and there is a RACON (radar beacon) on top of the lighthouse.
A concrete helipad is built into the rock a short distance away and connects to the lighthouse via a concrete walkway.
Historical development
Ve Skerries was built as an automatic minor light in 1979 and was the last significant rock station built by the Northern Lighthouse Board in Scotland.
The Ve Skerries are dangerous for passing vessels due to unpredictable currents and the low depth of water around the skerries. Many ships have been wrecked on these rocks over the centuries. A lighthouse was considered on Ve Skerries as early as 1863, however the remote location of the skerries and the extreme weather it encountered meant construction of a lighthouse would be very difficult (Paxton and Shipway, p.251). In 1894 Commissioners from the Northern Lighthouse Board managed to land on Ve Skerries, however the weather turned quickly, and they had to make a hasty retreat. They estimated that a stone-built, pillar-style lighthouse (like that at the Bell Rock and Skerryvore) would have cost around £50,000 to £60,000 and taken several years to build. As such, a less expensive solution needed to be found and a lighted buoy was placed off the Ve Skerries instead (Munro, pp. 171 and 270).
From 1915, a temporary light on a cast iron tower was shown at Esha Ness to give some warning of the Ve Skerries, however this was 16 km northeast of the skerries. A permanent, concrete-built lighthouse station was built at Esha Ness in 1929 (Munro, p.219). This did not entirely resolve the danger, as on 29 March 1930 the steam trawler Ben Doran was wrecked on Ve Skerries, losing its entire crew. In June 1932 a gas-powered light buoy with a wave-operated whistle was placed off the north end of the reef to mark Ve Skerries (The Scotsman).
The construction of a lighthouse at Ve Skerries was prompted after the diesel trawler Elinor Viking was wrecked in early December 1977. In December 1978, the Northern Lighthouse Board announced a lighthouse was to be built on Ve Skerries (Aberdeen Press and Journal). Work began on the lighthouse in May 1979. Due to the remoteness of the site and difficult sea conditions, all workers, materials and equipment were taken by helicopter from the construction site base at Esha Ness to Ve Skerries daily, a distance of around nine miles.
A major factor in the decision to build a lighthouse at Ve Skerries was the threat posed due to an increase in oil-tanker traffic associated with Sullom Voe oil terminal. The lighthouse was completed in 11 weeks by engineers from CHAP Construction (Aberdeen) under the supervision of R J MacKay, chief engineer at the Northern Lighthouse Board (Strachan, p.87). Ve Skerries was first lit in September 1979 (Aberdeen Press and Journal).
Statement of Special Interest
Ve Skerries Lighthouse meets the criteria of special architectural or historic interest for the following reasons:
- It is the first lighthouse built in Scotland using the post-tensioning technique in the late-20th century.
- It is the last significant rock station constructed by the Northern Lighthouse Board.
- It is functionally related to Esha Ness Lighthouse and is an important navigational aid along a dangerous stretch of Shetland's coastline.
- The remote setting of Ve Skerries lighthouse is largely unchanged since the lighthouse was built in 1979.
- Ve Skerries is important in helping us to understand how the operation of lighthouses changed by the late-20th century, particularly following mass automation of lights.
Design
The design of Ve Skerries Lighthouse is innovative because its pre-cast and reinforced-concrete structure relies on a post-tensioned system. The concrete tower was pre-stressed vertically and a total post-tensioning force of about 1600 tonnes applied (almost ten times the weight of the structure). Eighteen alloy steel bars (Macalloy bars) are positioned in two rings (of twelve and six bars) anchored three to five metres (10 to 16 feet) into the rock below. The steel bars were post-tensioned from the top using hydraulic compressed air jacks. The lower half of the tower is designed to withstand a wave force of two tons per square foot (Paxton and Shipway, p.251).
Technological advancements by the mid-20th century allowed for the design and quick construction of Ve Skerries lighthouse. These include the development of the post-tensioning bar system in 1948 (Macalloy) and the availability of helicopters and winch systems. The construction of Ve Skerries was the first of several lighthouses in Scotland built using the post-tensioning technique under the direction of R J MacKay, civil engineer at the Northern Lighthouse Board (Paxton and Shipway, p.251). The use of large, pre-cast concrete manhole chamber rings allowed the work to be completed quickly once positioned into place by helicopter (Paxton, p.251) and allowing construction to take place on what had previously been a largely inaccessible rock.
Setting
The location for any lighthouse is critical to its function. The Ve Skerries are a group of low-lying skerries (reefs or rocky islands) located in St Magnus Bay, three miles northwest of Papa Stour off the west coast of Shetland. The prominent skerry setting of the lighthouse, anchored to the rock known as Ormal, within the isolated seascape of the Atlantic Ocean has not significantly changed since its construction.
A lighthouse on Ve Skerries was chosen to help guide shipping around the headland of Shetland and down Yell Sound to Sullom Voe oil terminal. Ve Skerries is one of a group of strategically important lighted navigational aids, both major and minor lights.
Historic interest
Age and rarity
Ve Skerries is an automatic minor light and the last significant rock station built by the Northern Lighthouse Board in 1979. Until the early 1970s, there was only one major light (Esha Ness), four minor lights and a lighted buoy (off Ve Skerries) lighting the upper portion of the west coast of Shetland around the northern section of Yell Sound (Munro, p.270). Ve Skerries therefore forms an important chapter in the story of Scotland's lighthouses over the past 40 years, particularly relating to advances in technology, solarisation and automation.
There are over 200 operational Northern Lighthouse Board lighthouses within Scotland, with many other examples either decommissioned or operated by other organisations and groups. They range from elegant stone pinnacles on remote reefs far out to sea, to small navigational beacons and modern modular lights. Of these, around 150 lighthouses of various shapes, sizes and types are currently designated as either listed buildings or scheduled monuments, representing a wide range of specific navigational dangers that required marking at night.
Social historical interest
Social historical interest is the way a building contributes to our understanding of how people lived in the past, and how our social and economic history is shown in a building and/or in its setting.
Ve Skerries Lighthouse is of social historical interest as it belongs to the modern era of lighthouse technology and construction. Whilst the dangers of the Ve Skerries are well known, the potential cost of a stone-built lighthouse and the remote setting of the skerries made the task impossible before modern technologies and alternative construction methods were available.
The significance of Scotland's lighthouse network to the country's history is high. As an island nation with over 18,000 kilometres of coastline and over 900 islands, maritime industries such as fishing, coastal trade and transportation have long been significant social and economic factors. Scotland's coasts are also located on international sea-routes linking northern Europe with the rest of the world. The use of lighthouses was therefore vital to the safety of shipping in Scottish waters. Prior to the construction of Scotland's lighthouses, most navigation markers were landmarks visible only during daylight, and so nautical navigation at night or in poor conditions was a highly dangerous but sometimes unavoidable undertaking. This is reflected in the large numbers of records of ships and sailors lost in wrecking incidents around the coasts of Scotland during the 19th and 19th centuries.
The first lighthouse in Scotland was established on the Isle of May (SM887) in 1636. This light aided navigation into the many harbours around the Firth of Forth and took the form of a stone tower mounting a coal fired brazier. Although the Isle of May beacon was far from as bright as later examples, in good weather it good be seen from as far as the entrance to the Tay, and it would remain operational for 180 years. The Isle of May was followed by several other lighthouses and beacons being built from the late 17th century, improving navigation for the Tay, the Solway and the Clyde.
A common factor in all the lights established in the first 150 years was that they were conceived, built and operated by private interests and organisations, such as local magistrates, councils and individuals, supported by the king and parliament when necessary. By the early 1780s, however, there was a growing recognition that many shipping and navigational dangers existed far beyond the profitable harbours and estuaries that had driven the development of the early lights. To address this, in 1786 parliament passed "An Act for erecting certain Light-houses in the Northern Parts of Great Britain" and established a board of Commissioners (subsequently to become the Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses and then the Northern Lighthouse Board), initially to undertake the work of building and maintaining lights at four locations, including Kinnaird Head (LB31888), Eilean Glas (LB13487), Mull of Kintyre (LB19874) and North Ronaldsay (SM6596). These lights were the work of the Board's first engineer, Thomas Smith, and his assistant Robert Stevenson, and used improved lighting technology in the form of whale oil burners and mirrored reflectors to enhance the brightness.
Following the 1786 Act, the number of lighthouses around the coasts of Scotland began to rapidly grow, along with the technology and engineering skills employed. By the early 19th century oil lamps were replacing the earlier coal burners, and Robert Stevenson had been able to design and build a lighthouse on the Bell Rock (LB45197). Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, Robert Stevenson and his descendants continued to push the boundaries of technology and engineering to expand the network, including lights on Skerryvore (LB17489), Muckle Flugga (LB17479), Dhu Heartach (LB12320), and the Flannan Isles (LB48143). As the final example of a rock lighthouse built by the National Lighthouse Board, Ve Skerries is therefore an important continuation of the ingenuity and engineering skill found in many earlier examples.
Association with people or events of national importance
There is no direct association with a person or event of national importance.
For over 150 years Robert Stevenson and his descendants designed many of Scotland's lighthouses. The efforts of the Stevenson family in designing and constructing the network of lighthouses around Scotland's coasts, often against seemingly overwhelming odds, led to their collective name the "Lighthouse Stevensons" and they are revered as some of Scotland's greatest engineering minds. While Ve Skerries lighthouse is a late-20th century structure, the legacy of the Stevensons' engineering skills can be seen in the design and setting of the current structure.