Minor Light - Arbroath, Angus, Scotland.
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creg-ny-baa
N 56° 32.720 W 002° 37.147
30V E 523419 N 6266841
Minor light, a small lighthouse, one of only two remaining in Scotland, situated at the entrance of the Angus coastal town of Arbroath, having been relocated from Yell in the Shetland Isles.
Waymark Code: WM12GNW
Location: Northern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/25/2020
Views: 0
A minor light is a small lighthouse that was once dotted around the coastal waters of Scotland. Only two survive and this particular one was moved from Shetland via the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses at Fraserburgh, to its current position by the side of the A92 road as it enters the coastal town of Arbroath on the North Sea coast of Scotland. Originally sited at Vatsetter on the island of Yell in the Shetlands in 1880, it was moved to Arbroath in 2011.
The fifteen foot tall structure is painted red and is situated on the grass verge on the left-hand (landward) side of the road as it enters Arbroath at Elliot from the south. A car parking area is close by. A sign on the light gives information and reads as follows:
'This structure is a Minor Light and is one of only two of its type surviving. In 1914 there were 68 around the Scottish coast.
It was originally sited on Yell in Shetland in 1880 and every three seconds it flashed a white light that could be seen 9 miles out to sea.
Minor lights were unmanned and marked harbour entrances and coastal features. They were operated by the Northern Lighthouse Board, often with the help of local fisherfolk and crofters.
This light was dismantled and transferred to the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses in Fraserburgh and then to Arbroath in 2011. As part of Angus Council's Museum Collection it was refurbished and re erected here to mark the bicentenary of the Bell Rock Lighthouse.
The people of Arbroath are known as "Reid Lichties", (Reid = red). The origin of the name is unclear but it is said to be linked to lights that guided seafarers.'