Showing posts with label HMSTarlair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HMSTarlair. Show all posts

Tuesday 29 June 2021

Skulferatu #35 - Ha Lighthouse (Hawkcraig Point Range Front Light), Aberdour

 

On a lovely, sunny bank holiday Monday I went for a walk along the Fife Coastal Path from Burntisland to Aberdour.  My walk took me past Silver Sands Beach, which was packed with people making the best of the sun and the easing of the Covid restrictions.  I carried on round to the rocky outcrop of Hawkcraig Point and made my way round to Ha Lighthouse.  This lighthouse stands on the rocks overlooking the sea and, on a clear day, has some great views out over the Forth to Inchcolm Island and Edinburgh.   Most of Edinburgh was however obscured by the remnants of the morning haar.

 

View over Silver Sands Beach to Hawkcraig Point and Ha Lighthouse on a sunny day with lots of people out on the beach.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for The Skulferatu Project.
View over Silver Sands Beach to Hawkcraig Point and Ha Lighthouse

 

Rocks up to Ha Lighthouse, Aberdour.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for The Skulferatu Project.
Rocks up to Ha Lighthouse

 

Ha Lighthouse (Hawkcraig Point Range Front Light), Aberdour.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for The Skulferatu Project.
Ha Lighthouse (Hawkcraig Point Range Front Light)

 

I can find very little information about this lighthouse other than it is one of two lights on Hawkcraig Point, this being the Front Light and…wait for it…the other being the Rear Light.  Original names or what!  These two automated lights mark the deep water channel from the east end of Mortimer’s Deep to the Forth Deepwater Channel.  This deep water channel being used by the oil tankers making their way up the Forth from Braefoot Terminal where they have been pumped full of a cargo of liquefied petroleum gas.  Not really the type of ship you want hitting anything and leaking its cargo into the sea.

 

Other than that, the only exciting details I can find are that Ha Lighthouse is 13 feet high and when the light is on it flashes on for 2.5 seconds and off for 2.5 seconds.  And for those of you who haven’t fallen asleep yet, I can let you know that the rear lighthouse is 26 feet high, and its light also flashes on and off for 2.5 seconds.

 

Ha Lighthouse (Hawkcraig Point Range Front Light) sitting amongst the rocks.  .Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for The Skulferatu Project.
Ha Lighthouse (Hawkcraig Point Range Front Light)

 

Ha Lighthouse with Hawkcraig Point Range Rear Light in background.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for The Skulferatu Project.
Ha Lighthouse with Hawkcraig Point Range Rear Light in background

 

Hawkcraig Point Range Rear Light - an automated lighthouse painted white and red with stairs running up the grassy hill at the side of it.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for The Skulferatu Project.
Hawkcraig Point Range Rear Light

 

Near to where the lighthouses stand is where, from 1915 to 1919, HMS Tarlair was based.  This was not a ship, but rather an experimental research base.  Here the Royal Navy had their main hydrophone research and training facility.  The hydrophones were underwater microphones used to listen out for U-boats and were the forerunner to today’s sonar systems.  The work carried out here led to major technological advances in the detection of submarines and was one of the first collaborations between military and civilian scientists and researchers.

 

There is not much left of this facility now other than a few concrete bases for the huts and part of a pier.

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on today’s walk in the cliff face down from the lighthouse.

 

Skulferatu #35 being held up for show with Ha Lighthouse in the background.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for The Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #35

 

Skulferatu #35 on a ledge in the cliff face below Ha Lighthouse, Aberdour.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for The Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #35 in cliff face below Ha Lighthouse

 

View from cliff face where Skulferatu #35 was left, view over a sun lit sea out over the Forth.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for The Skulferatu Project.
View from cliff face where Skulferatu #35 was left

 

TomTom Map showing location of Skulferatu #35
Map showing location of Skulferatu #35

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 56.050336

Longitude -3.284126

 

I used the following sources for information on the lighthouse –

 

Lighthouses of Southeastern Scotland

Lighthouses of Southeastern Scotland

 

Lighthouse Digest Magazine

Lighthouse Explorer Database - Hawkcraig Point Range Front Light

 

Information board at Hawkcraig Point