Hi, Hoy High!

I've always loved this image of Hoy High lighthouse. So crisp and wintry...

Hoy High  and it's counterpart, Hoy Low, were designed by Alan Stevenson (uncle of Robert Louis) and established in 1851.

The Fonds likes this image of Hoy High.

Robert Louis Stevenson Day!

Today is the 163rd anniversary of Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, A Child's Garden or Verse and, our favourite short story title ever; Thrawn Janet.

RLS is mainly associated with his childhood home, Edinburgh, but he did visit Orkney and Shetland as a nineteen year old with his father, Thomas Stevenson, a lighthouse engineer. Thomas' father, Robert, and his brothers, Alan and David, all built lighthouses and this was supposed to be his son's career until Robert Louis announced that he was going to be a writer.


RLS wrote letters to his mother during the 1869 inspection trips of the family's lights. He was not too taken with Stromness declaring it to be 'a cluster of gray houses in the upper end of a bight - not very inviting.' (bight, or bicht, is a loop)

Hoy High lighthouse, one of the lights being inspected on the 1869 trip.

He was more taken with Kirkwall, however, describing his first view as 'striking'and describing the 'glory' of the cathedral in some detail. 'I know nothing so suggestive of legend, so full of superstition, so stimulating to a wierd imagination, as the nooks and corners and by-ways of such a church as St Magnus, in Kirkwall.



St Magnus Cathedral, Pre-Restoration by Tom Kent



Cathedral Interior by Tom Kent

Another writer who kept a journal during a Stevenson lighthouse inspection was Sir Walter Scott whose visit to Orkney and Shetland inspired his novel The Pirate.



For more on the 'Lighhouse Stevensons' read Bella Bathhurst's book of the same name.

And for more on RLS himself see here.

There is a light that never goes out

Tonight the Science Festival includes a talk titled Around Scotland's Lighthouses by Virginia Mayes-Wright, Director of the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses. Orkney has many fine lighthouses which we're sure will feature.

This very lovely photograph of Hoy High Lighthouse was taken by Wilfred Marr. Don't be fooled by the name, it's not on Hoy but on the island of Graemsay. Together with its neighbour Hoy Low Lighthouse, also on Graemsay, they act as "leading" lights; when a ship entering Hoy Sound lines up the two lights they are on the correct bearing to stay in deep water. The two lights were designed by Alan Stevenson and were lit up for the first time in April 1851.

Hoy High lighthouse is the grander looking structure of the two lights on Graemsay. Its tall white tower, rising to 108 feet (32.9 metres) is still a much-loved landmark for travellers to and from Orkney. Hoy Low was automated in 1966 and Hoy High in 1978.