Qualla: Stoer Head Lighthouse https://qualla.com/stoer-head-lighthouse en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/k/5/stoer-head-lighthouse-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Stoer Head Lighthouse https://qualla.com/stoer-head-lighthouse Stoer Head Lighthouse: Introduction https://qualla.com/stoer-head-lighthouse/ Photo credit DeFacto, CC BY-SA 4.0. The lighthouse is only 45 feet tall - a stubby tower that looks almost domestic next to the soaring cylinders most people picture when they think of Scottish lighthouses. But the cliff it sits on does the work the height won't. The beam reaches 24 miles out to sea, flashing white every fifteen seconds, because the keepers' fathers and grandfathers in the Stevenson engineering family understood something elemental: a small light on a tall cliff outperforms a tall light at sea level. The Stevensons built 45 of these around Scotland's coast in the 1870s. Stoer Head was one of them, completed in 1870 by David and Thomas, two of the family who would also produce Robert Louis Stevenson.

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Image: DeFacto | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/k/5/stoer-head-lighthouse-wp/gfk5-stoer-head-lighthouse-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Stoer Head Lighthouse: Building It With the Sea https://qualla.com/stoer-head-lighthouse/ Photo credit Donald Bain, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1870, no road reached Stoer Head. The materials for the lighthouse had to come by boat. The Stevensons built a jetty about a mile to the southeast of the site, landing stone, lime, ironwork and provisions there before hauling them overland to the headland. That jetty still exi...

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Image: Donald Bain | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/k/5/stoer-head-lighthouse-wp/gfk5-stoer-head-lighthouse-building-it-with-the-sea.mp3 0:06 2 full Stoer Head Lighthouse: The Keeper's Family https://qualla.com/stoer-head-lighthouse/ Photo credit Sarah Charlesworth, CC BY-SA 2.0. Until 1978, the lighthouse was staffed by a principal keeper and an assistant who lived with their families in two cottages beside the tower. Sutherland in the 1900s was not a forgiving address. The remoteness demanded near-self-sufficiency, and the keepers kept livestock - the f...

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Image: Sarah Charlesworth | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/k/5/stoer-head-lighthouse-wp/gfk5-stoer-head-lighthouse-the-keepers-family.mp3 0:06 3 full Stoer Head Lighthouse: Automation and the Tourist Cottages https://qualla.com/stoer-head-lighthouse/ Photo credit Hilmar Ilgenfritz, CC BY-SA 2.0. Automation came in 1978. The keepers left. The lighting was converted to sealed-beam electric lamps that switch on and off via a sensor at fixed light levels. Today maintenance is split between a local who visits regularly to clean and check, and Northern Lighthouse Board technic...

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Image: Hilmar Ilgenfritz | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/k/5/stoer-head-lighthouse-wp/gfk5-stoer-head-lighthouse-automation-and-the-tourist-cottages.mp3 0:06 4 full Stoer Head Lighthouse: The Old Man Beyond https://qualla.com/stoer-head-lighthouse/ Photo credit Phillip Capper from Wellington, New Zealand, CC BY 2.0. From the car park, a clifftop path runs north to one of Scotland's most spectacular sea-stacks. The Old Man of Stoer is a 60-metre tower of Torridonian sandstone separated from the headland by a narrow channel of churning Atlantic. Climbers cross by Tyrolean traverse - a rope str...

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Image: Phillip Capper from Wellington, New Zealand | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/k/5/stoer-head-lighthouse-wp/gfk5-stoer-head-lighthouse-the-old-man-beyond.mp3 0:06 5 full