FOLIO · Issue 12 · Coasts

The last keepers

On the rock at Skerryvore, the light still needs someone.

Skerryvore at dusk · illustration

IMIsla MacRae · 14 min read · Photographs by the author

Twelve miles off the coast of Tiree, the sea does not so much break against Skerryvore as lean on it. The tower is 48 metres of granite, built in 1844 by Alan Stevenson, and for a hundred and fifty years three men lived inside it at a time, keeping a flame alive through every night of the year.

The last keepers left in 1994, when the light went automatic. But automatic is not the same as unattended. Somebody still has to come out on the relief boat, climb the 151 steps, and listen to the machine the way the old keepers listened to the weather.

That somebody, for the last nine years, has been Donald Morrison.

The light doesn't care whether you believe in it. It just has to turn, every eleven seconds, for the rest of your life.— Donald Morrison, attendant

1900s

A crowded coast

At the turn of the century, Scotland had more than 200 staffed lights, most with three keepers each.

1960s

The first machines

Electric lamps and fog-signal timers arrive. Rock stations go from three keepers to two.

1980s

The great switch-off

The board decides every light will be automatic. Keepers are retrained, retired or moved ashore.

1998

Fair Isle South

The very last staffed light in Scotland goes automatic on 31 March. The keepers lower the flag.

Staffed lighthouses

212 staffed lights

0sweeps tonight

Every eleven seconds

Keep scrolling. You are turning the light.

Morrison will do this for three more winters, he says. After that someone else will come out on the relief boat, climb the steps and listen. The light doesn't care who.