Description
North Carr Beacon was built 1818-1821 by the Northern Lighthouse Board to plans by the board's engineer, Robert Stevenson. This unlit beacon marks the treacherous Carr Rock, a tide-covered reef extending around 2km northeast from the shore at Fife Ness, a prominent peninsula on the northern side of the shipping entrance to the Firth of Forth.The North Carr Beacon stands around 7.5m above mean sea level. It is constructed of six columns of cast iron clamped to a masonry support and is surmounted by a hollow ribbed ball. The masonry support for the beacon consists of four complete courses and one partial course of interlocking dovetailed-masonry, the surviving remains of a circular stone tide-operated bell tower designed by Robert Stevenson, and which was abandoned during its construction.
Historical development
While engaged in the construction of the nearby Bell Rock Lighthouse, Robert Stevenson recorded the loss of sixteen vessels on the treacherous Carr Rock over a nine-year period 1800-1809 (Stevenson 1824; 52). On the orders of the Northern Lighthouse Board, a floating buoy was anchored off the Carr in September 1809, but this frequently broke its mooring chain. The Northern Lighthouse Board decided to replace the floating buoy at Carr Rock with a tide-operated bell tower to be built from sandstone quarried from near the mouth of the Pitmilly Burn, around 10km to the north west.
In June 1813, a shore station was set up on the coast next to Fife Ness, and work began at the rock under the direction of Robert Stevenson (Stevenson 1824; 52). With the aid of cofferdams and pumps, his workmen worked between the tidal windows to excavate a base in the rock measuring 18 ft (5.4m) in diameter. Dovetailed stones were cut and assembled at the shore station and then shipped to site and fixed in place with Puzzolano mortar, a hydraulic cement.
Work proceeded very slowly over the next five years and was eventually abandoned after much of the masonry was swept away on several occasions. The last storm in November 1817 occurred shortly after the completion of the final stone course.
The board decided against attempting to rebuild the stone tower and instead, to complete the beacon with a cast iron structure built onto the remaining stonework. The cast iron beacon was eventually completed in September 1821. Stevenson estimated that the cost of the construction was around £5000.
Robert Stevenson considered that beacons, without a light or bell, were an imperfect solution for marking reefs to warn shipping. He considered that the situation at Carr Rock might be improved by provision of additional leading lights, either on the Fife mainland, or the Isle of May. These were not initially progressed on cost grounds (Stevenson 1824) but in 1843–44, a low-level lighthouse (Canmore ID 57878) was built on the Isle of May in a position so that when the two May lights were observed one above the other, mariners knew that they were in line with the Carr Rock to the north.
Ultimately however, the North Carr Beacon did not prove to be particularly successful on its own, and the first of a series of light vessels took up station at the North Carr in the 1880s. The last of these remained in service until 1975, when the Fife Ness lighthouse became operational. The North Carr Beacon continues to mark the navigation hazard of the Carr Rock in conjunction with a cardinal navigation buoy 1.5km to the east [2020].
Statement of Interest
North Carr Beacon meets the criteria of special architectural or historic interest for the following reasons:
- North Carr Beacon is a relatively unaltered example of an early 20th century beacon by the renowned Northern Lighthouse Board engineer Robert Stevenson and retains its original form.
- Although part of a relatively common building type, North Carr Beacon has some unusual features, including the masonry base of an earlier tide-powered bell tower. The iron frame of the beacon is likely to have been a prototype for other beacons built by Northern Lighthouse Board around the coast of Scotland.
- The remote setting off Fife Ness is largely unchanged since the lighthouse was built. The survival of North Carr Beacon, together with a nearby lighthouse construction site, and a 1975 lighthouse at Fife Ness, are important for understanding the steps taken by Northern Lighthouse Board to safeguard shipping at this important but hazardous location of the Scottish coast.
- The construction of the North Carr Beacon was an important chapter in the history of the building of the Bell Rock Lighthouse by the renowned engineer Robert Stevenson and is therefore of significant historic interest in helping us to appreciate the history of lighthouse construction during the 19th century.
Architectural interest
Design
The North Carr Beacon is of design interest as an early 19th century beacon built in Scotland to a design by the renowned engineer Robert Stevenson as described and illustrated by him (Stevenson 1824). The circular masonry base of the beacon comprises the four or five lower courses of sandstone surviving from the unsuccessful tide-operated bell tower. The surviving courses illustrate the dovetailed, interlocking masonry Stevenson deployed elsewhere at sites such as Bell Rock. The small circular water inlet for the proposed tide-activated bell has been blocked up but remains visible.
Six 'great malleable iron-bats or stancheons' passed through the stone courses and were sunk around 30 inches (75cm) into the rock. Stevenson described the framework of six cast iron pipes that formed the beacon, as being 'of great strength, fashioned somewhat after the manner of what seamen term a spar or spar beacon, from being made generally of timber, set up in the form of struts or spur-beams' (Stevenson 1824: 487). The cap of the beacon terminates with a cast iron ball, 3.5 feet (106cm) in diameter. The entire iron beacon framework was secured to the masonry using a ballast plate of around 8 tons of cast iron. The plate was embedded in Puzzolano mortar to protect it from oxidation in sea water.
Despite the extreme environmental conditions Stevenson encountered at North Carr, and the challenges faced in attempting to build a stone tower, the cast iron beacon that was eventually completed by Stevenson, survives in its original early 19th century form. The design of the North Carr Beacon is considered to have been a prototype for beacons later used extensively around the coast of Scotland (Paxton and Shipway 2007) and is therefore of significant design interest.
Setting
The location for lighthouses and beacons is critical to their function. North Carr Beacon occupies the seaward end of a long reef system extending in a north-easterly direction from Fife Ness. It therefore represented a significant hazard for vessels either entering or leaving the northern approaches to the Firth of Forth.
The beacon continues to perform this function, remaining visible from the sea, and from the coast.
The nearby setting of North Carr Beacon contributes to our understanding of its function or historical context. The construction of the beacon can be understood through the survival of the construction site for the North Carr tide-operated bell tower (SM 13733) on the mainland (around 2km to the south west). Although the beacon continues to mark the Carr Rock, it was not successful on its own. The construction of the 1975 Fife Ness lighthouse (LB52557), also around 2km to the south west, demonstrates that additional safety measures were required for shipping at this important but hazardous location of the Scottish coastline.
Historic interest
Age and rarity
North Carr Beacon is of interest as it is one of the earliest of the surviving fixed seamarks built by the Northern Lighthouse Board to warn shipping away from hazardous reefs.
There are over 200 operational Northern Lighthouse Board lighthouses within Scotland, with many other examples either decommissioned or operated by other organisations and groups. They range from elegant stone pinnacles on remote reefs far out to sea, to small navigational beacons and modern modular lights. Of these, around 150 lighthouses of various shapes, sizes and types are currently designated as either listed buildings or scheduled monuments, representing a wide range of specific navigational dangers that required marking.
In 1979, researchers recorded around 50 unlit beacons of which the oldest was the 150-year old beacon at North Carr (Munro, 1979:248). It is likely to have been a prototype for the design of other beacons in Scotland (Paxton and Shipway 2007). Many of these beacons have been replaced or altered. North Carr survives in its original form and is therefore a rare example of an early 19th century beacon. North Carr Beacon forms an important chapter in the story of Scotland's lighthouses and navigation markers.
Social historical interest
Social historical interest is the way a building contributes to our understanding of how people lived in the past, and how our social and economic history is shown in a building and/or in its setting.
North Carr Beacon is of social historical interest in helping us to understand this system of seamarks and the contribution they made, alongside major and minor lights, in safeguarding shipping around the coast of Scotland.
The significance of Scotland network of lighthouses and beacons to the country's history is high. As an island nation with over 18,000 kilometres of coastline and over 900 islands, maritime industries such as fishing, coastal trade and transportation have long been significant social and economic factors. Scotland's coasts are also located on international sea-routes linking northern Europe with the rest of the world. The use of lighthouses and beacons was therefore vital to the safety of shipping in Scottish waters. Prior to the construction of Scotland's lighthouses, most navigation markers were landmarks visible only during daylight, and so nautical navigation at night or in poor conditions was a highly dangerous but sometimes unavoidable undertaking. This is reflected in the large numbers of records of ships and sailors lost in wrecking incidents around the coasts of Scotland during the 19th and 19th centuries.
The first lighthouse in Scotland was established on the Isle of May (SM887) in 1636. This light aided navigation into the many harbours around the Firth of Forth and took the form of a stone tower mounting a coal fired brazier. Although the Isle of May beacon was far from as bright as later examples, in good weather it good be seen from as far as the entrance to the Tay, and it would remain operational for 180 years. The Isle of May was followed by several other lighthouses and beacons being built from the late 17th century, improving navigation for the Tay, the Solway and the Clyde.
A common factor in all the lights established in the first 150 years was that they were conceived, built and operated by private interests and organisations, such as local magistrates, councils and individuals, supported by the king and parliament when necessary. By the early 1780s, however, there was a growing recognition that many shipping and navigational dangers existed far beyond the profitable harbours and estuaries that had driven the development of the early lights. To address this, in 1786 parliament passed "An Act for erecting certain Light-houses in the Northern Parts of Great Britain" and established a board of Commissioners (subsequently to become the Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses and then the Northern Lighthouse Board), initially to undertake the work of building and maintaining lights at four locations, including Kinnaird Head (LB31888), Eilean Glas (LB13487), Mull of Kintyre (LB19874) and North Ronaldsay (SM6596). These lights were the work of the Board's first engineer, Thomas Smith, and his assistant Robert Stevenson, and used improved lighting technology in the form of whale oil burners and mirrored reflectors to enhance the brightness.
Following the 1786 Act, the number of lighthouses around the coasts of Scotland began to rapidly grow, along with the technology and engineering skills employed. By the early 19th century oil lamps were replacing the earlier coal burners, and Robert Stevenson had been able to design and build a lighthouse on the Bell Rock (LB45197). Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, Robert Stevenson and his descendants continued to push the boundaries of technology and engineering to expand the network, including lights on Skerryvore (LB17489), Muckle Flugga (LB17479), Dhu Heartach (LB12320), and the Flannan Isles (LB48143). In addition to the major lights, fixed seamarks were also used, many marking rocks and reefs that represented a significant hazard to navigation, but which were inaccessible and impractical from the point of view of erecting a lighthouse.
Association with people or events of national importance
The North Carr Beacon has a close historical association of national importance.
It was designed by the internationally renowned engineer Robert Stevenson, engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board (1799-1843), while working on his masterpiece at Bell Rock. Robert Stevenson was the first of several generations of Stevenson family appointed as engineers to the board. Robert, Alan, David, Thomas, and David A Stevenson were jointly responsible for the design and construction of lighthouses in Scotland over a period of nearly 150 years. In addition to his masterpiece at Bell Rock, Robert Stevenson's legacy is evident at sites such as Isle of May, Sumburgh Head, Tarbat Ness, Mull of Galloway and Dunnet Head. He also played a significant role in other civil engineering projects in Scotland. The story of construction work at North Carr as documented by Stevenson himself, appears to have been a significant chapter in his work at Bell Rock, illustrating the practical challenges Stevenson encountered in lighthouse engineering at some of the most exposed locations around the Scottish coast. It is a rare example of a project by the 'Lighthouse Stevensons' that was not entirely successful.
External Links
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Recommended Books
Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990