South Light on Fair Isle is a pharologist's*  delight - a superb  example of a 'Stevenson Lighthouse', one of many built around the shores of mainland Scotland and the isles during the Victorian era by this famous and prolific family of Scottish engineers.

(*pharology - the study of lighthouses!)

Designed and built in 1891 by David A. and Charles Stevenson (cousin of author Robert Louis Stevenson) it entered service in 1892. The tower is 85 feet tall and there are 96 steps to the top. In 1998 it became the last lighthouse in Scotland to be automated. Its foghorn - also Scotland's last - was dismantled in 2005.   Its light is still operated by the Northern Lighthouse Board and the beam, consisting of 4 flashes every 30 seconds, can be seen from at least as far as Orkney - some 25 miles away across open sea.

 

To watch a  short BBC video of Angus Hutchison, last principal keeper, talking about automation of the lighthouse, click on the link below

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00dsz90

Here Angus talks from the top of the lighthouse about the life of a keeper

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00dgfwr

(The much photographed lighthouse also features on the cover of 'Blue Lightning'  - set on Fair Isle it is the last novel in 'The Shetland Quartet' by best-selling crime writer Ann Cleeves.)