News

From The Lighthouse Bulletin

14th August 2025

This nugget of news may be of interest to the journalists of whom several read our our Lighthouse Bulletin and also our sister publication, Unique Property Bulletin (here and here).

Our managing director is a former legal beagle and whilst he is non-political, he does like to keep an eye on the law. Especially if it helps to renovate lighthouses and make lighthouse homes affordable.

^^ Russ McLean, Editor of The Lighthouse Bulletin ^^

Earlier today he was heard coughing and spluttering as there is something going on with a new Land Reform Bill.

Apparently it has cross-party support so is highly likely to pass the last stage and receive Royal Assent. Meaning this will become law…

^^ This Is A Solution To ^^

^^ The Ailsa Craig Lighthouse Station Problem ^^

Can you see “the problem in the next photograph?”

^^ Ailsa Craig Lighthouse Keepers’ Homes ^^

^^ Now In A State of Utter Ruin ^^

Compulsory Purchase Seems The Only Answer Now

To Bring These Buildings Back From The Brink of Demolition

Photograph Courtesy of Rossographer via Creative Commons

The inexorable progress of the new Land Reform Bill can be studied here…

^^ The Official Progress of The New Land Reform Bill ^^

Also Seen: Click Here

It cannot be overstated how potent the content of new legislation is in this nascent statute.

Our Lighthouse Preservation charity will now be followed by a fourth charity from “Calum’s List” to start compulsorily purchasing bank buildings that banks’ seek to close when there would be some element of harm (including economic harm) to a local community. Just Google the website our friend is rebuilding: “Calum’s List” for more on that matter of miscreant banks.

For this website, the new Land Reform Act is actually a very good and potent piece of legislation for all folk who love lighthouse buildings and safeguarding these iconic structures from becoming ruins.

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News

From The Lighthouse Bulletin

1st August 2025

In answer an interesting question about how might it be possible to help the owner of Neist Point Lighthouse Station stop the structural deterioration there?

The most obvious answer is:-

(a) Assist with securing some grants and aid.

Or…

(b) Help find a new buyer who has the funds to buy and restore Neist Point Lighthouse Station. Thereby relieving the current owner of several headaches.

Our reader had a supplementary question….

But how would you get building materials across that very long, precarious cliff-edge to the actual Neist Point Lighthouse Station?

^^ Neist Point Lighthouse Station From Afar ^^

The Ruinous Deterioration Cannot Be Seen From Here.

Photo Courtesy of JazzLove, Alamy Fee Paid: Here

The reader has a good point.

It is a long way from the start of the cliff-edge to this set of tired looking buildings that are in urgent need of rescuing…

^^ Neist Point Lighthouse Station ^^

Looking Terrible.

Photograph Courtesy of Tom Parnell via Creative Commons

This is a very sad story and we hope to be able to gently help the owner (they are welcome to get in touch with us: here).

With respect to our readers question about getting renovation building materials onto the site, one of our (retired) lighthouse keepers made a very elegant observation…

“Do what the Stevenson architects and their builders did between 1905 and 1907: build a small harbour and hoist, then bring the building materials in by boat.”

Eureka!

That made a lot of sense.

Our lighthouse keeper friend then phoned back the next day to let us know…

“Neist Point should still have a harbour as it was substantial, plus a crane and cable-car. But they are 115 years old, so may need renewing!”

We had a look and guess what, something that seemed impossible… getting the building materials onsite, soon became very probable as illustrated by what we found…

^^ Lesser Known Harbour ^^

^^ Built For The 1909 Lighthouse Station A Neist Point ^^

Photo With Our Gratitude To Richard Dorrell & Geograph
Via Creative Commons License.

Here is the secret to helping save one of the country’s most iconic lighthouse stations.

Sometimes the old ways are best. This diminutive harbour and unique cableway are the secret to renovating this genuinely spectacular set of beam buildings at the very remote Neist Point Lighthouse Station…

^^ Lesser Known Cable Car System For Conveying Building Materials ^^

^^ From The Neist Point Harbour To The Lighthouse Station ^^

Photo With Our Gratitude To Chris Downer
& Geograph Via Creative Commons License.

There appears to be significant support to purchase a suitable vessel and reinstate the harbour hoist + cable car system so that RENOVATION materials can be transported onsite.

The “long walk” method in the spectacular cliff-edge photo above simply does not cut the mustard

Neist Point Lighthouse Station was designed by David Alan Stevenson. But there needed to be a pragmatic way to get hundreds of tons of building masonry to the very remote site. This was 1909 and the  majority of construction work was still very manual.

But there was ingenuity too.

In addition to building the Harbour at Neist Point, a clever design of cable-car hoist was to get the building materials onto the site from the Harbour.

The moral of this is that with a lot of help from the lighthouse community, there are ways to bring lighthouse buildings from the edge… of ruination.

^^ Neist Point Lighthouse Station ^^

Contrast: The Lighthouse Tower is still owned and full maintained in very good working condition.

Whereas the privately owned former lighthouse keepers’ houses are perilously close to becoming wrecked ruins.

Photo Courtesy of Iain Masterton, Alamy Fee Paid: Here

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News

From The Lighthouse Bulletin

4th July 2025

For any of our friends in the media, the COMPULSORY PURCHASE by COMMUNITY organisations within the Land Reform Act 2016 (here) and Community Empowerment Act (here) are very well written and exceedingly potent.

Both pieces of legislation will help avoid this sort of nightmare…

There is little option left than to now deploy the
Land Reform Act and Community Empowerment Legislation
so that a charity and/or CIC can buy Ailsa Craig Lighthouse 
Station & avoid an imminent safety demolition order.

A brief note of regular news items will appear on this page.

Sometimes these may appear random, but every segment is designed to ensure:-

=> Lighthouse Preservation.

&

=> Affordable Lighthouse Homes.

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