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Skerryvore - considered by many
to be the
most elegant and perfect lighthouse |
Alan, the eldest son of Robert and Jean Stevenson
to survive infancy, was born in the year in which work commenced
on the Bell Rock Lighthouse. His greatest achievement was
undoubtedly the Skerryvore lighthouse . . . built on a reef
some 12 miles off the south-west tip of Tiree; in fact,
in a situation not all that dissimilar from the Inchcape
Rock on which his father had built his famous lighthouse.
Considered as the intellectual of the family, Alan was not
born with the same robust physique as his father and grandfather,
and unfortunately suffered from ill-health for most
of his life, causing him to retire prematurely from the
position of Engineer in 1853.
In 1844 he married Margaret Jones, whom he had met
many years before in Wales. They had one son (Robert Alan
Mowbray) and three daughters. They eventually moved to St
Cyrus in Kincardineshire, a small village a few miles north
of Montrose and not far from the heartland of Scotland's
other great literary genius and National Bard, Robert Burns.
Alan travelled extensively through Europe and befriended
the eminent French scientist Leonor Fresnel, who
along with his brother Augustin had done much work on optics
and lenses for lighthouses. Alan died in 1865 and is buried
with his wife in the family vault in the New Calton Cemetery.
As well as his numerous other achievements, he will be
best remembered for building Skerryvore, which RLS described
as "the noblest of all extant deep-sea lights",
and considered by many to be the world's most elegant
and perfect lighthouse.
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Little Ross (1843) |
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Skerryvore (1844) |
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Covesea Skerries (1846) |
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Chanonry Point (1846) |
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Cromarty (1846) |
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Cairn Point (Loch Ryan) (1847) |
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Noss Head (1849) |
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Ardnamurchan (1849) |
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Sanda (1850) |
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Heston Island (1850) |
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Hoy (1851) |
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Stornoway (Arnish Point) (1853) |
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