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.
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.
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.
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
