The Light Tower

Robert Stevenson was the founder of the famous engineering family, and grandfather to Edinburgh-born writer Robert Louis Stevenson. He was consultant to the Northern Lighthouse Board for 34 years from 1808 to 1842. He designed and supervised the construction of 18 major lighthouses around Scotland and the Isle of Man. The completion of the Bell Rock Lighthouse in 1811 was considered to be his greatest achievement where he collaborated with John Rennie.

The Stevenson Family lighthouse legacy began with Robert’s stepfather, Robert Smith– and continued through five generations of Stevensons.

This diagram shows the lighthouses they built round Northern Britain, but their legacy extended to India, Asia, New Zealand and Japan.

In 1812 Robert Stevenson was approached by the Trustees of the Queensferry Passage, to determine where best to place a light at North Queensferry. His suggestion was to build a light room on top of the existing external staircase on the Ferry Offices and Waiting Room – Mount Hooly. The trustees went along with Stevenson’s recommendation, and the light was duly installed on Signal House. It probably looked something like this:

By 1817, it was realized that the light was not in the optimum location to guide ferries and to cast light along the Town Pier, so a new Light tower as built and the light room transferred to the top of the new tower.

You can read more about the History of the Light Tower