A Natural History of Lighthouses

There is a natural affinity between lighthouses and bird migration. Lighthouses are built on islands, remote rocks and cliffs and headlands and migration is often channelled through such features. Lighthouses also often attract birds, depending on the prevailing weather conditions and the phase of the moon. In this book John Love has married the two themes together and told the story of the history of British lighthouses and their lightkeepers and their contribution to ornithology and other aspects of natural history.

The author is a Scot and his emphasis is on Scottish lighthouses, but the south-west of England, Wales and the Isle of Man are also well covered. Woven through the story is the history of the Stevenson family, talented engineers from Edinburgh, several generations of whom built many of the northern lights. The famous author, Robert Louis Stevenson, was the son of one of the lighthouse engineers. The author relates many interesting tales, such as the mysterious disappearance of the three keepers from the Flannan Isles Light in December 1900 and the two attacks by German bombers in 1942 on the Fair Isle South Light that killed four people. Some of the lightkeepers became interested in the natural history around them and contributed many valuable records.

I was particularly interested to read the chapter on Bird Strikes and Observatories, having witnessed an enormous attraction of Starlings and winter thrushes at the Bardsey Island Light in November 1967, when I was assistant warden at the bird observatory. That attraction killed in excess of 700 birds and enabled just two of us to ring 786 birds in the day. There are fascinating descriptions of attractions at various lights around the British coast, of how and why attractions occur and of the various measures which have been trialled to mitigate the many casualties caused.

This is a nicely produced book by Whittles Publishing, although I would have liked to have seen more structure to the narrative in places. It has a wealth of good quality photographs, mostly modern, by the author, but also some historic photos in black and white. The photo of the horse being craned ashore in a sling onto the Flannan Isles in the 1890s is a classic. If you enjoy visiting islands and the remoter parts of the British Isles then you will find much to interest you in this book.

Book reviewed by Malcolm Wright