Qualla: Rua Reidh Lighthouse

Rua Reidh Lighthouse: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Until 1962, the only way to bring paraffin to Rua Reidh was by boat, hauling drums up a quay at high tide and rolling them on a trolley along iron rails to the lighthouse. The road came late, and the keepers' isolation was the point - a Stevenson light at the entrance to Loch Ewe needed someone watching, not someone commuting. The road has been driven on since 1962, and it has been argued over since long after that. The lighthouse, of course, just keeps doing what it was built to do.

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Rua Reidh Lighthouse: The Flat Headland

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Rua Reidh - properly Rubha Rèidh - means simply flat headland in Gaelic, and that is exactly what it is: a low blunt thumb of Lewisian gneiss pushed out into the Minch where Loch Ewe opens to the sea. David Stevenson, of the famous lighthouse-engineering family, first proposed a ...

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Rua Reidh Lighthouse: Four Blasts Every Ninety Seconds

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

For most of the 20th century, Rua Reidh's fog siren gave four blasts every 90 seconds when visibility dropped - a sound that carried for miles across the open water of the Minch. The siren was discontinued in 1980, when the Northern Lighthouse Board ended fog signals throughout S...

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Rua Reidh Lighthouse: The Road from Gairloch

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

For its first fifty years, the lighthouse depended on the sea. A small quay and ramp to the north allowed supplies to come in at high tide; paraffin was pumped from boats, and other goods rolled along a small trolley on rails. The road from Gairloch was finally built in 1962 - an...

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Rua Reidh Lighthouse: Sharks Below, Birds Above

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Since automation in 1986, the keepers are gone and their accommodation has been sold into private ownership; the lighthouse has been a category B listed building since 2004, and several of the outbuildings operate as bed-and-breakfast or self-catering tourist accommodation. The w...

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