Update: 01-03-2025
Place of the lighthouse
Loch Indaal is an inland sea on the island of Islay. Loch Indaal Lighthouse is also known as Rubh’an Duin. The lighthouse is located on the southeast side of the Rhinns of Islay off Scotland’s southwest coast. As the lighthouse is located near the town of Port Charlotte, it is often referred to as the Port Charlotte light.
Building of the Lighthouse
Loch Indaal Lighthouse was built in 1869 to the design of David Lillie and Thomas Stevenson. The lighthouse is a white cylindrical brick tower with black lantern and 13 meters high. It is still operational but only the grounds of the tower are open.
Warning systems (Light)
Following conversion to oil gas in 1897, the complement was reduced from two to one keeper and his family. The light was converted to a paraffin vapour burner in 1905.
Operational status
The lighthouse is still in use. The lighthouse is operated and monitored by the Northern Lighthouse Board in Edinburgh.
Additional information
The former Lighthouse Keepers’ house has undergone extensive renovation and has 4 acres of land above the shore is now known as Lochindaal House and offers self catering accommodation for six. A short walk to the village, you can find the Museum of Islay Life. The Museum has a sundial from Loch Indaal Lighthouse. It was presented to the Museum by the Northern Lighthouse Board in 1983.
An American memorial shaped like a lighthouse can be seen at the Mull of Oa. The American Red Cross created it to commemorate the loss of two troop ships in 1918.
The Tuscania, a passenger liner, was on its way from New Jersey to the coast of France with 2,000 American soldiers and a crew of more than 300. At Halifax, Nova Scotia, they joined a convoy and entered the British waters between Islay and Northern Ireland on 5th February 1918. The convoy was followed by a German submarine, U77, which torpedoed the Tuscania. She sank after a few hours seven miles off the Islay coast near the Oa peninsula. An estimated 230 lives were lost.
A few months later, on 6th October 1918, only a few miles from where the Tuscania sank, HMS Otranto carried troops from New York to Glasgow. The vessel collided with the steamship HMS Kashmir during a heavy storm.
