Caldey Island Lighthouse

Caldey Island Lighthouse in 2007
Location	Caldey Island Pembrokeshire Wales
Coordinates	51°37′54″N 4°41′03″W / 51.631559°N 4.684274°W / 51.631559; -4.684274
Tower
Constructed	1829
Construction	brick tower
Automated	1927
Height	16 metres (52 ft)
Shape	massive cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern
Markings	white tower and lantern
Power source	solar power
Operator	Trinity House[1] [2]
Heritage	Grade II listed building
Light
Focal height	65 metres (213 ft)
Lens	2nd Order (700mm) catadioptric
Intensity	5,010 candela
Range	13 nautical miles (24 km; 15 mi)
Characteristic	Fl (3) WR 20s.

Caldey Lighthouse is located on the south end of Caldey Island, three miles (5 km) off the south Pembrokeshire, Wales coastline, a small island inhabited by a Cistercian monastery.

An application to build the Lighthouse was made in March 1827 on behalf of traders in Carmarthen Bay. It was commissioned by Trinity House and built by Joseph Nelson at a cost of £4,460. The light was first lit in 1829.

The Lighthouse is a squat, round, brick-lined limestone tower of 17.07 m (56 ft), with walls 0.91 m (3 ft) thick at the base and 2 ft 6 in (0.76 m) thick at the top. The light stands 64 m (210 ft) above high-water mark. It acts in conjunction with the Lundy North lighthouse to the south, and has a range of 13 nautical miles (24 km). The former oil store for the lighthouse is a listed structure.^[3]

The present lantern was fitted around the middle of the nineteenth century and consisted of 20 Argand lamps and reflectors, subsequently replaced by a helical lantern later in the nineteenth century.

The Lighthouse was converted to automatic operations in 1929. It was the last Trinity House lighthouse to be powered by gas, eventually being converted to electricity in 1997.

The light was intended to help coastal traffic trading limestone and coal to mid and north Wales but the light also helped long-distance and north American traffic identify the Bristol Channel and avoid confusion with the English Channel.

The lighthouse keepers' cottages, that flank the Lighthouse, are two-storey, with hipped roofs, octagonal chimneys, and a one-storey linking corridor. This forms a ‘U’-shape, with the Lighthouse at the centre of the south side, and enclosed gardens to the north. The cottages were built around 1868-70 by T. C. Harvey, C.E.

Cardiff Central Library holds a wash drawing by Charles Norris showing the Lighthouse under construction.

• List of lighthouses in Wales
• Trinity House

• Hague, D. B., Lighthouses of Wales Their Architecture and Archaeology (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, 1994), ISBN 1-871184-08-8
• Lloyd, T., Orbach, J., Scourfield, R., The Buildings of Wales: Pembrokeshire (Yale University Press, 2004), ISBN 0-300-10178-3.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Caldey Island Lighthouse.

• Trinity House