Skerryvore

Skerryvore (from the Gaelic An Sgeir Mhòr meaning "The Great Skerry") is a remote island that lies off the west coast of Scotland, southwest of Tiree. Skerryvore Lighthouse is located on these rocks, built with some difficulty between 1838 and 1844 by Alan Stevenson. At a height of it is the tallest lighthouse in Scotland. The shore station was at Hynish on Tiree (which now houses the Skerryvore Lighthouse Museum); operations were later transferred to Erraid, west of Mull. The remoteness of the location led to the keepers receiving additional payments in kind. The light shone without a break from 1844 until a fire in 1954 shut down operations for five years. The lighthouse was automated in 1994. In pre-historic times the rocks that now form Skerryvore were covered by the ice sheets that spread from Scotland out into the Atlantic Ocean beyond the Outer Hebrides. After the last retreat of the ice around 20,000 years ago, sea levels were up to lower than at present. Although the isostatic rise of land makes estimating post-glacial coastlines a complex task, circa 14,000 BP it is likely that the reef was at the south western end of a large island consisting of the modern islands of Tiree and Coll and the surrounding land. Steadily rising sea levels would then have slowly isolated and finally all but submerged the shoals of Skerryvore, a barrier of innumerable metamorphic remnants that stretch for lying in a south-westerly direction. A detailed survey undertaken in 1834 listed more than 130 main rocks including Am Bonn Sligheach (Boinshley) (The Deceitful Bottom) and Am Bogha Ruadh (The Red Submerged Rock). The rocks have been worn smooth by the action of the waves and are constantly affected by spray. Alan Stevenson wrote: "The effect of the jet d'eau was at times extremely beautiful, the water being so broken as to form a snow-white and opaque pillar, surrounded by a fine vapour in which, during sunshine, beautiful rainbows were observed ".