A sketch postcard – Wales 2013 As the Coronavirus (Covid-19 virus) has shut down leisure travel for the foreseeable future, I’m thinking back to some coastal walk trips. Besides some of the spectacular settings, an iconic feature of these seaside walks was the occasional lighthouse. These stalwart towers from a bygone era still attract many visitors who relish their history and, for those fortunate enough to enter them, a spectacular view out over some incredible and often treacherous seascapes.
While lamenting the travel prohibition and the inability to do travel sketches, I decided to look back over nearly 40 years of my sketchbooks to see if I could find some of my past lighthouse sketches. There were a few starting with a 1994 sketch of the Newhaven Harbour Lighthouse at Leith outside of Edinburgh, Scotland. This was surprising, since I grew up in the shadow of Nobska Light and behind the Coast Guard base in Woods Hole on Cape Cod. It looks like I never got around to sketching Nobska Light until 2002. Most of the lighthouses I sketched were simply seaside structures that just happened to be on our coastal paths. A few had historical significance, but many are no longer navigational guides. However, all the sketches of lighthouses recall a series of travels along some magnificent coasts that continue to beckon me.
While lamenting the travel prohibition and the inability to do travel sketches, I decided to look back over nearly 40 years of my sketchbooks to see if I could find some of my past lighthouse sketches. There were a few starting with a 1994 sketch of the Newhaven Harbour Lighthouse at Leith outside of Edinburgh, Scotland. This was surprising, since I grew up in the shadow of Nobska Light and behind the Coast Guard base in Woods Hole on Cape Cod. It looks like I never got around to sketching Nobska Light until 2002. Most of the lighthouses I sketched were simply seaside structures that just happened to be on our coastal paths. A few had historical significance, but many are no longer navigational guides. However, all the sketches of lighthouses recall a series of travels along some magnificent coasts that continue to beckon me.
SCOTLAND - 1994
Leith Lighthouse – Newhaven Harbour, Leith, Scotland: Recently illuminated after being dark since 1930. No longer a navigational guide, the 19th century tower was prefabricated in Edinburgh by James Dove & Company in 1869 and now serves as a community historical landmark for the port villages of Northhaven and Leith near Edinburgh, Scotland. We visited the village of Leith while staying in Edinburgh for Lindy’s Plant Pathology Conference at the University of Edinburgh in 1994.
DENMARK - 2001
Skagen Lighthouse - an active lighthouse just northeast of Denmark’s northernmost town of Skagen in the far north of Jutland, Denmark. It started operation in 1858, replacing an earlier 1747 lighthouse which was Denmark’s first brick lighthouse. The current lighthouse is unpainted brick with an attached two-storied keeper’s house painted in bright yellow. We visited this area while on a tour of Denmark and stayed in Lindy’s cousin’s “sommerhus” while we were in Skagen during the summer of 2001.
WALES - 2013
Strumble Head Lighthouse - on Ynys Meicel (from Welsh: St. Michael's Island), also known as Strumble Head, a rocky island at the northwest corner of Pencaer area, five miles west of the town of Fishguard, in northern Pembrokeshire, Wales. The present lighthouse was erected in 1908 and replaced a light-vessel previously moored in the south of Cardigan Bay. The circular stone tower is 55 ft high and still contains the original Fresnel lens lantern. The lighthouse was reached by an iron bridge with a pipe handrail on the bridge that siphoned fuel from the mainland.
This section of the Wales coast called “Strumble Head - Llechdafad Cliffs” was a spectacular section of our Wales Coastal Walk in Pembrokeshire, South Wales. We walked this coast in August 2013 and took some extra time from our hike for lunch and some sketches. According to the sketch, we ate a Scotch Egg and Welsh Cakes - probably with an Ale. The area is designated as a "Site of Special Scientific Interest" (SSSI) in an attempt to protect the fragile biological and geological elements.
CALIFORNIA - 2018
Point Arena Lighthouse – located on a peninsula that juts out a ½ mile from Point Arena (“sand point”) in Mendocino County, California. The first Point Arena Lighthouse was constructed in 1870 to guide ships around the sandbar. Located very close to the San Andreas Fault, it was heavily damaged by a devastating earthquake in 1906. The brick tower was replaced by a steel reinforced concrete tower by a company that normally built factory smokestacks. It was the first lighthouse to be built in this manner. The lighthouse featured a “1st Order Fresnel Lens”, but of course the six foot diameter six ton lens has since been replaced by a 40 pound LED light. The original lens is now in the Lighthouse museum adjacent to the tower.
We visited the lighthouse while visiting our friends, Bill & Darcy Shaw, in Gualala and our cousin, Paul Andersen, in Point Arena. The lighthouse has a wonderful museum and also has adjoining apartments where you can stay. We were fortunate to attend an evening full-moon tour which included a climb up to the top of the lighthouse tower with a guide who provided an informative talk while we gazed out at sea.
MICHIGAN - 2018
“Big Red” Holland Harbor Lighthouse – is located at the entrance of a channel connecting Lake Michigan with Lake Macatawa that connects with the city of Holland, Michigan. This 1907 structure has a gabled roof that reflects the Dutch influence in the area which was settled in 1847 by Dutch Calvinist separatists. The three-story square tower building is topped with a gray-shingled roof, and is one of the most photographed lights in Michigan. We visited the lighthouse in September 2018 while touring this section of Lake Michigan with Dale and Susan Frens who originate from this area.
Grand Haven South Pierhead Lighthouse – there are two lighthouses on the south pier of Grand Haven, Michigan where the Grand River enters Lake Michigan. Established in 1839, the two lights are connected by a catwalk that also connects them to the shore and the Grand Haven Boardwalk. The inner light is the cylindrical tower, and the foghouse outer light stands on a huge concrete foundation. The lighthouse pier is a popular spot for fishing and catching the sunset and is claimed to be one of the most photographed lighthouses in the Midwest. Like many of these lighthouses, it was deemed excess by the Coast Guard and is now managed by a community group to care for the structures.
Little Sable Point Lighthouse – This lighthouse was the third lighthouse developed on Lake Michigan’s eastern shore. It’s history notes that Congress appropriated $35,000 for the lighthouse in 1872 on over forty acres of public land set aside by President Ulysses S. Grant. It required more than 100 wooden piles driven into the sand to support the foundation for the tower on the sandy soil of the Point. A cofferdam was then built in the sand so that the ground water could be pumped out and cement could be poured for the foundation. The 100-foot brick tower has a decagonal lantern room to house a “third-order Fresnel lens” that had two lower fixed sections with a rotating upper section. As with many of these 19th century lights, it required the keepers to wind up a weight that was suspended between the tower’s inner and outer walls which powered the revolving mechanism. In 1926, the lighthouse was sold to the State of Michigan and is now part of the Silver Lake State Park. While we couldn’t get into the lighthouse tower, but we did enjoy our time in the sand dunes of the park.
Manistee North Pierhead Light - located on the north pier in the harbor of Manistee, Michigan (Lake Michigan’s “Victorian Port City"). It was preceded by a light on the south pier in 1870 which burnt in the Great fire of 1871, along with the town of Manistee which coincided with the Great Chicago Fire, the Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin, and fires in Port Huron and Holland, Michigan. This tower was constructed of cast iron around 1927 and had a “Fifth Order” Fresnel lens. We walked out on the cast iron catwalk to the tower during a blustery wind. Evidently this catwalk is one of only four that survive in the State of Michigan.
Grand Traverse Lighthouse - located at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, which separates Lake Michigan and Grand Traverse Bay – or as our friend Chris Kehl, a former resident of Northport, would say “this is the pinky of the Michigan mitt." The 1858 structure is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is very popular for tours of the restored lighthouse and the lower keeper's home which has artifacts from the 1920s and 1930s. Evidently you can reserve a stay to serve as a keeper. We enjoyed visiting the many exhibits on area lighthouses, foghorns, shipwrecks and local history which are located in the adjacent Lighthouse and Fog Signal Building.
ISLE OF WIGHT, ENGLAND - 2019
Henry the VIII’s 1544 Southsea Castle – this lighthouse is not actually on the Isle of Wight, but in Southsea, Portsmouth where the ferry leaves for the island. This complex formed part of the King's Defense program to protect the coast of England against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire. Over the years, it has served as an artillery fort, a military prison, and in 1828 the Admiralty constructed a lighthouse. It is now restored to its pre-1850 appearance and is a popular tourist attraction with a museum and grounds that are part of the Portsmouth (England) Southsea Commons. We were in Portsmouth in the summer of 2019 prior to our coastal walk around the Isle of Wight which is just off the coast of Portsmouth. Since I had neglected to pack my usual watercolor kit, this sketch was done with some very cheap paper and some very poor Chinese watercolours found in a discount stationary store in Portsmouth. Fortunately after we got to the ferry port town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight, I was able to find an art store that sold Winsor & Newton supplies.
Needles Lighthouse - the lighthouse is an active 19th century lighthouse on the outermost of the chalk rocks at “The Needles” on the Isle of Wight. It was completed in 1859 and replaced an earlier light tower on top of a cliff overhanging the bay, which guided ships making their way up the Solent (the strait that separates the Isle of Wight from the mainland of England). This vista was a short walk from Totland which was one of our stays while walking the coastal path of Isle of Wight and signifies the transition to the “Back of the Wight” which is a more open and rural portion of the island.
CAPE COD - 2002
Nobska Lighthouse - originally called “Nobsque Light”, is located near the division between Buzzards Bay, Nantucket Sound, and Vineyard Sound in the settlement of Woods Hole, Massachusetts on the southwestern tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts – where I grew up while attending the Woods Hole School and later working as a scientific illustrator in the Graphic Arts Department of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. When I was living in Woods Hole on Juniper Point behind the Coast Guard Base, my bedroom was on the top floor of a three-story house which had a magnificent view of Martha’s Vineyard Sound - and of course this wonderful lighthouse. I recall the reassuring effect of the lighthouse beams shining in my bedroom while also listening to the low bellow of the fog horn. The light station was established in 1826, with the tower protruding above the keeper's house, and was replaced in 1876 by the current 42 foot tall iron tower. The light station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. I recall the Hindley family who were light keepers in the 1960s and 70s and who may have been the last civilian lighthouse keepers in New England. The lighthouse and grounds are now managed by a non-profit, the Friends of Nobska Light, which conducts tours of the tower while renovating the Keepers House into a Maritime Museum.
The lighthouse is also adjacent to one of our local beaches – Nobska Beach.
At the time of these sketches around 2002, I was not doing watercolors, so I’d like to return to try a few watercolors and hopefully tour the new museum. The lighthouse commands a spectacular site and means a great deal to all of us who spent time in Woods Hole.
A "post update"
I've received numerous wonderful comments from various readers of this post including one from "Mary" who shared her 1963 sketch of Sankaty Head Lighthouse on Nantucket Island. Above the sketch is a vintage postcard of the light in its original position before being moved farther away from the cliff edge and when the Keeper's house was still there.
Everyone loves a lighthouse! If any reader wants to share their favorite sketch of a lighthouse, please send me a note or comment to this blog.
Everyone loves a lighthouse! If any reader wants to share their favorite sketch of a lighthouse, please send me a note or comment to this blog.
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