Tuesday, 16 March 2021

Skulferatu #23 - West Breakwater Lighthouse and Signal Tower, Leith Docks, Edinburgh

 

West Breakwater Lighthouse, Leith Docks, Edinburgh.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project
West Breakwater Lighthouse

 

This abandoned and now derelict lighthouse sits on a concrete platform at the West Breakwater of Leith Docks.  It was built in the 1950s and on the flat roof there was a massive semaphore device for signalling to ships out in the Forth.  The building fell out of use due to advances in technology and changes in shipping routes.  Today it is derelict and empty, weather battered and stripped bare. It is usually decorated with graffiti, though every so often the council come along and whitewash the building and resecure the fence around it. 

 

Walkway to West Breakwater Lighthouse, Leith Docks, Edinburgh.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project
Walkway to West Breakwater Lighthouse


Abandoned, derelict lighthouse at Leith Docks, Edinburgh.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project
The lighthouse is now derelict and abandoned

 

Graffiti on abandoned, derelict lighthouse at Leith Docks, Edinburgh.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project
Graffiti on the abandoned lighthouse


Tower of abandoned, derelict lighthouse at Leith Docks, Edinburgh.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project
The lighthouse tower

 

 Concrete support pillars underneath the abandoned, derelict lighthouse at Leith Docks, Edinburgh.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project

Concrete support pillars underneath the lighthouse

 

I’ve always thought the lighthouse is a building that could have a second life as something…maybe a trendy cafĂ© or restaurant.  However, given the practical difficulties and costs involved in this sort of transformation, it will probably just crumble away until one day the bulldozers come in and knock it down.

 

I left a Skulferatu under the lighthouse, at the back of the space created by the supporting pillars.

 

Skulferatu #23 by the concrete support pillars underneath the lighthouse at Leith Docks, Edinburgh.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project
Skulferatu #23

Skulferatu #23 underneath the abandoned, derelict lighthouse at Leith Docks, Edinburgh.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project
Skulferatu #23 at West Breakwater Lighthouse

 

TomTom Map showing location of Skulferatu #23
TomTom Map showing location of Skulferatu #23

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

Latitude 55.988837

Longitude -3.185501