The Old Light

A substantial rock set menacingly in the middle of a busy shipping lane, Lundy has a dismal record of shipwrecks. In the 18th century, well aware of it's dangers, a group of Bristol merchants offered to build and maintain a lighthouse at their own expense if the island's owner would allow them a site. They chose Beacon Hill, the highest point on the island, with only the sea between it and America. After a series of difficulties, the Old Light was eventually designed by Daniel Asher Alexander, the architect of Dartmoor prison, and built in 1820. Connected to the tower by a passage were quarters for keepers' families. Also built of granite, the quarters have a fine block like feeling, revealing Alexander's admiration for Piranesi's prints which show gigantic buildings made of a cyclopean stones. Lundy Island, Devon (September 2010).