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Beara’s
long connection with the Lighthouses
Over the past centuries, Beara has been connected with the
Irish Lighthouse Service and has been used as a major base
for its lighthouse tenders and supplying crews for same,
as well as many lighthkeepers, from the area. It is interesting
to recall that during the month of June 1860, Sir James
Dombrain, Mr. Thompson and Alderman Roe, Lighthouse Commissioners,
accompanied by Captain Roberts, R.N. were on a tour of inspection
at Berenhaven.
They arrived at Berehaven on a Sunday morning on board the
Trinity House steamship, Vestal, under the command of Captain
Evans of the Milford Station. On Monday morning, the commissioners,
having inquired into the working of the Roancarrig Light,
at the eastern entrance of the harbour, proceeded to the
tower lately erected at the western end of Bere Island.
The tower, although not lighted, has served to distinguished
the western end of the harbour from a small blind harbour
named Pulleen, distant two miles, into which several vessels
have run through mistakes. (This is the harbour visited
by a 30-foot whale during the past week.)
The commissioners wisely resolved on having a lantern erected
on this tower, and a light exhibited from it, as soon as
the lighthouse on the Calf Rock, off Dursey Island would
have been completed. (That lantern light mentioned by the
commissioners during that visit in 1860 did not come into
operation until the 1960s when Castletownbere became a major
fishing port.)
The commissioners reported that the boisterous state of
spring and early summer had rendered the execution of any
work on the Calf Rock that year impracticable, but the Store,
which was to be a permanent establishment on the mainland
of Dursey Sound, would be proceeded with vigorously and
arrangements made for an early start with works on the Calf
the following year. They reported that Berehaven is well
buoyed, and that the Admiralty a short time since had laid
sown a buoy opposite Carriglass House. There was a perch
on the Dog Rock and one also on Sound Rock, at the entrance
of the inner harbour.
They further reported the importance of having a perch or
small tower erected in the Calf Rock, off Dunboy Castle,
as had been pointed out by the commissioners. (Later a perch
with large metal figure of a horse was placed on this rock
and it has been known ever since as Colt Rock.) With these
improvements, the stranger would enter into Berehaven at
either entrance in any weather. The Vestal proceeded on
her cruise northward, wind at south, blowing strong, with
rain.
It is interesting to note that the Roancarrig Lighthouse,
which was a three-man station, was automated and demanned
in the 1970s. The Calf Rock on which a lighthouse was built
during their visit, was one of the smallest and most exposed
around the coast to be inhabited, for over twenty years,
by lightkeepers and, before them, the men who built the
tower. The Calf Rock itself was acquired under the powers
of the Merchant Shipping Act with legal advice. The council
stated that a notice should be published in a number of
County Cork and Kerry newspapers, and all police stations,
three Dublin papers and in large letters in a noticeboard
in Calf Rock (to be renewed if destroyed by the sea), and
if no claimant appeared within a time limit of one month,
then a Sheriff's Inquiry should be held.
The eventual result of all this appeared towards the end
of January 1859, in the form of a letter from the Commissioners
of Wood and Forests, stating that Her Majesty Queen Victoria
owned Calf Rock. A suggested payment of £50 plus five
guineas expenses was reduced to £26, 5s. 0d. There
was also a certain amount of difficulty with the landlord,
a Mr Hutchins, in purchasing the ground for the shore dwellings,
but eventually, in October 1859, £181 was paid for
the portion of of land at Dursey Sound which had a view
of Calf Rock.
An estimate by Gerorge Halpin for £2,000 for building
the dwellings was queried by the Board of Trade. They argued
that similar dwellings had been built at Land's End for
half that amount. This was settled when the Board explained
the difficulty of site conditions on the mainland and also
if the dwellings were reduced by one room as suggested,
some keepers would find difficulty in accommodating their
large families.
The dwellings, still standing today, were sold by the Commissioners
of Irish Light in 1946, although they had remained unoccupied
by the keepers from Bull Rock in 1940. They were again sold
in recent years and converted to holiday homes, and are
now on the market again.
Courtesy Southern Star
September 2005
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