Lighthouses…

I’ve always liked lighthouses. I think it’s something to do with their solidness, as sentinels on the edge of the world. I like the stone, the history and the beacon in the darkness. It also helps that they are usually on stunning pieces of coastline.

I have two pictures of lighthouses as part of my personal art collection, and hanging them together got me thinking about all the lighthouses I’ve visited over the years. So I went back through my photos and found 31 individual lighthouses. I’m sure I’ve been to more, but these are the ones with identifiable photos. So, I thought I’d introduce you to them. Some you’ll have met before, because I’ve written about them here, but others are all new. This post isn’t intended to be an exhaustive history of each lighthouse, it is more an overview of each, even a possible preview for a longer post in the future. If nothing else, it’s lots of pretty photos of lighthouses. Most are Australian, but there’s some guest appearances from the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Iceland.

For clarity’s sake – they are in alphabetical order. Enjoy

Barrenjoey

So we’re kicking off with a lighthouse I have written about before and you can see that post here.

But nevertheless, Barrenjoey stands at 29 m and is 113 m above sea level. The Barrenjoey Peninsula is at Palm Beach, an hour’s drive north of Sydney. The lighthouse is at the entrance to Pittwater, Broken Bay and the Hawkesbury river. The current structure was built between 1879-1881, the first light station was only oil lamps on two wooden towers and stood between 1865 and 1881. The lamp is a Fresnel Stationary lens with a 100 W 24 volt quartz-iodine tungsten lamp. I will write a post about Fresnel lenses one day as they revolutionised lighthouses. As well as still being an active navigational aid, it commands a truly stunning piece of coastline. And yes, if it look familiar, it is because it’s the lighthouse you can see in Home and Away.

Cape Borda

Jumping over and south now, to the first of our ‘Cape’ lighthouses – capes really are a great place for a lighthouse. Cape Borda is also the first of three Kangaroo Island lighthouses, you’ll meet the others a little later. Kangaroo Island is off the southern coast of South Australia. Cape Borda lighthouse stands at 155 metres above sea level and is one of only three square stone lighthouses in Australia. The structure itself isn’t tall because the cliffs it stands on are so high. It was first lit in 1858 and is the last traditionally operated lighthouse in South Australia, meaning it still operates on its rotating platform with a lens, though it is automated. Its four rotating beams appear as four flashes.

Cape Bruny

We’re jumping even further down south for our third lighthouse. Cape Bruny is a very different location to Barrenjoey for example. Well it was on the day I was there anyway.

Bruny Island is off the coast of Tasmania, just south of Hobart, and the lighthouse does really feel like it’s clinging to the edge of the world. The lighthouse dates to 1836-1837, and when it was first lit in 1838 it was only Tasmania’s third lighthouse. It stands 114 metres above sea level on Bruny’s wild cliffs. It is no longer lit, with its duties being moved to a nearby solar light in 1996.

Cape Du Couedic

Cape Du Couedic is our second Kangaroo Island lighthouse. Built between 1906–1909 Cape Du Couedic is made of over 2000 pieces of local stone. The tower itself is 25 metres high and has an elevation of 103 metres above sea level. Like Cape Bardon, Cape Du Couedic is still active and automated, but it operates with a modern light and no rotation. The light shows two flashes every ten seconds. It still has the Fresnel lens, made by Chance Brothers.

Cape Jaffa

We’re staying in South Australia, but we’re moving back to the mainland. Cape Jaffa is visually unusual amongst all other lighthouses because of the amount of metal as part of its structure. This is because it was originally located on the Margaret Brock Reef 15 km off the coast south west of Cape Jaffa, which is in south eastern South Australia. It was moved back to the main land in 1976. It was built in 1872 and stood at 41 metres high. The structure is a Wells Screw Pile, which was suited to its condition on a reef. The Chance Bros. Fresnel lamp could be seen 40 km out to sea. The 8 room accommodation housed two lighthouse keepers and their families. When the lighthouse was decommissioned in 1973 it was donated to the National Trust of South Australia, who undertook to have it rebuilt on Marine Parade in Kingston, South Australia. It is now a museum.

You can see it on its reef in c.1902 below

Cape Leeuwin

So we’re moving west now. Cape Leeuwin stands at the meeting point of the Indian and Southern Oceans at the very bottom of Western Australia, it’s the most south-westerly tip of all of Australia. Built in 1895, at 32 metres it’s the tallest lighthouse on mainland Australia. Its Chance Bros. Fresnel lamp rotates on a bath of mercury and was powered by kerosene (which had to be hauled up and down the stairs) and was rotated using a drop weight, which had to be hand wound, until 1982. It is now, thankfully, automated. It was personned until the early 90s. The light reaches 26 nautical miles out to sea.

Fresnel lamp turning

Cape Naturaliste

Sometimes alphabetical allows other connections, this is my other WA lighthouse and in fact it’s driving distance from Cape Leeuwin and is part of the same maritime protection system. Cape Naturaliste was built in 1903 on a cape named for Baudin’s ship. The cape was also used as a signalling point by the Wardandi, the local First Nations people. The lighthouse is 20m high and built of limestone, quarried from the nearby Bunker Bay. The lens is a Fresnel lens and like Cape Leeuwin, it rotates on a mercury bath. It was the last personned lighthouse in Australia, with the last keeper leaving in 1996.

the Fresnel lamp turning

Cape Northumberland

We’re back to South Australia again, and this one was very much a flying visit. I was staying in Mount Gambier and I climbed up the dormant volcano Mount Schank (a name that will crop up in another lighthouse shortly) and saw how close I was to the coast, so I headed out, had fish and chips on the beach and found Cape Northumberland lighthouse by accident. But I still thought it was worth including here. This is the second light to serve this bit of coast. The first opened in 1859 but only lasted twenty three years, due to the conditions and the erosion of the cliffs it stood on. This light was built in 1882 and 400 metres to the east on a hill. It was also a Chance Bros. lamp. The light was personned until 1990.

Cape Reinga

We’ve reached out first international lighthouse. Cape Reinga stands on the most northerly point of New Zealand’s North Island. This light is actually one of the newest on the list. It was built in 1941 to replace the 1879 light on Motuopao Island, which is just south-west of the Cape. It cost 30 000 pounds to build, was the last personned lighthouse in New Zealand to be built, is 10 meters high and stands 165 metres above sea level. It’s still very much part of New Zealand’s maritime network, the light flashes every 12 seconds and can be seen for 35 nautical miles. It’s often the first light that ships see when arriving from the Tasman Sea or the Pacific Ocean. Like Cape Leeuwin, it’s at the confluence of waters. In this case it’s where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet.

The meeting of the sea and the ocean. You can really feel the remoteness of Cape Reinga

Cape Schanck

Cape Schanck is another lighthouse I have written about before. You can read that post here. It stands on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. It’s also the return of the name Schanck, which I mentioned with Mount Schank from which I saw Cape Northumberland. Both, despite the different spellings, were named after Admiral John Schank by James Grant when he sailed past on the Lady Nelson. The extra c was added locally later, as a misspelling.

Cape Schanck was constructed between 1857 and 1859, along with the other buildings of its lightstation, by the Victorian Public Works Department. It stands at 21 metres on 80 metre cliffs. The lamp is a Chance Bros. design and is automated and can be seen 25 nautical miles into Bass Strait. It’s part of a sea road of lighthouses that patrolled Bass Strait. The others are Cape Whickham and Cape Otway, which I sadly don’t have photos of, but I might return to at another time. Cape Schanck is also my local lighthouse, I’m from the Peninsula originally. So I have a real soft spot for. Along with Port Fairy’s lighthouse, which I’ll be discussing shortly, it’s one of only three lighthouses in Victoria that have inbuilt stone staircases. I don’t have photos of it, but you’ll Port Fairy’s staircase soon.

Cape Tourville

We’re heading back south with Cape Tourville, which sits in the Freycinet National Park in Tasmania. It’s one of the newest lighthouses on this blog as it was built in 1971. It replaced the Cape Foriester lighthouse, which was demolished at the same time. It stands at 11 metres, but is 126 metres above sea level. It’s still very much part of the maritime network in Tasmania and its beam can be seen 28 nautical miles out into the ocean. You can see the coast it commands below

Cape Willoughby

Cape Willoughby is the third of my Kangaroo Island lighthouses. First lit in 1852, it was South Australia’s first lighthouse. The tower was built from limestone and granite that was quarried from a cleft in the cliff at the base of the tower. The tower itself is 26 metres and stands 75 metres above sea level. The original lamp was a Wilkins & Co lantern which was powered by clockwork, but it was replaced by a Chance Bros. in 1923, which was itself removed in 1974 in a major, and partly aesthetic, overhaul of the lighthouse, which also saw the removal of the internal wooden stair. The lighthouse was personned until 1992, making it one of Australia’s last personned lighthouses.

 Dyrhólaey

Dyrhólaey, as you might have guessed from the name, is the first of my Icelandic lighthouses – there are two more. It’s become a tourist attraction in its own right due to its position on the cliffs above the black sand beaches, and features in a lot of very pretty photos. But, like all the other lighthouses on this list, it serves an important maritime purpose. Dyrhólaey began life as the first lighthouse in Iceland in a basic iron framed structure in 1910, before the lighthouse you see now was built in concrete in 1927. The highest point is 123 metres above sea level and the light can be seen 43 km out to sea. It used to have a radio beacon that planes used to position themselves, but it was removed after WWII. Dyrhólaey was personned until 2015, despite the fact it was electrified in 1964. Dyrhólaey marks the southern most point of Iceland.

Fort Denison

Fort Denison is another lighthouse I’ve written about before, well about the Fort as a whole anyway. You can read that here

Fort Denison lighthouse, standing pride of place on an island in Sydney Harbour, has the distinction of being on the last Martello Tower built in the British Empire and the only one built in Australia. Martello towers were a series of coastal defences used across the British Empire, that were inspired by a Genoese fort built on Corsica in the 16th century. There were 140 of these towers across the Empire, and they were intended to hold off enemy warships armed with cannons. There would have been a cannon on the top and there are still three cannons inside the tower. By the time Fort Denison was built in 1857 – the whole island then known as Pinchgut had to be levelled by convict labor first- Martello towers were becoming obsolete. By the 1870s armour plating on ships, and the range of guns on said ships, rendered the tower completely obsolete as a defensive structure. This did not negate its role as a lighthouse however. The island was basically in the way of shipping, so in 1913 the light replaced the top cannon. Fort Denison is also the site of Sydney’s tide gauge and fog warning bell.

Gantheaume Point

Gantheaume Point is a very different sort of lighthouse, standing on the coast of far north Western Australia, just out of Broome. This is my only photo of it too, taken in 2007. This metal tower might not have the grandeur of the other towers in this list, but it still served a vital purpose all the same. The first iteration of this light was a fixed light, that did not flash, which was installed in 1905 after lobbying by traders and pearlers. The fixed light though proved to be problematic as it couldn’t be differentiated from a stationary ship, so other iterations were built. These iterations culminated in the current structure, the fourth iteration, which was built in 1983, which makes it the newest lighthouse on this list. It stands at 27 metres high and flashes every ten seconds.

Hook

By far the oldest lighthouse on this blog, this iteration was built in the 1200s, is one of two Irish lighthouses on this list, and it’s also one I’ve written about in detail before, which you can see here. It’s probably my favourite because it is a confluence of two of my favourite things – lighthouses and medieval history. It also helps that it was built for William Marshal who I wrote my honours thesis on. I’ve written about Marshal extensively on this blog. But to return to Hook lighthouse. It is one of the oldest working lighthouses in the world. It stands as a testament to the both the danger of the seas around the Hook Head Peninsula and the importance of the travel route that passes its tip.

The lighthouse itself was probably originally begun in the early 1200s on the orders of William Marshal. Marshal came to visit the lands in Ireland that came to him by right of his wife Isabel de Clare in 1200-1201. They were caught in a terrible storm crossing the Irish Sea and Marshal vowed to God that if they survived he would found an abbey. The ship didn’t sink and Marshal kept his word. As thanks to God for their survival he founded Tintern Abbey, which also stands on Hook Head Peninsula. The light would have been coal fired and quite simple.The particular black and white striping is unique to the Hook lighthouse so it can be clearly identified by ships.

Following repeated complaints, the coal fired light was replaced by an oil burning lamp in 1791. In the 1860s the lighthouse keepers moved out of the tower and into separate dwellings. In 1871 new gas lights were installed, powered by gas which was manufactured in the gas yard. Paraffin oil subsequently became the source of power. In 1911 a clockwork mechanism was installed so the light became a flashing one rather than a fixed beam. It had to be wound every 25 minutes. The light became electric in 1972. In 1996 the lighthouse was automated ending 800 years of lighthouse keepers.


Kálfshamarsvík

The second of my Icelandic lighthouses, Kálfshamarsvík stands out because of its distinctly Art Deco style. It’s located on a remote – even by Icelandic standards – peninsula on the north west coast of Iceland. It was built in 1940, though an earlier version stood on the site from 1913. It didn’t come into use until 1942 because of WWII delays. It looks remote now, but Kálfshamarsvík was actually a town. There was a busy fishing village here in the 1900s, which slowly fell victim to time and the Great Depression. The last residents left in 1960s. You can see the remains of their houses around the lighthouse and there’s still sheep roaming. The landscape around Kálfshamarsvík is extraordinary basalt columns. Kálfshamarsvík was designed by Axel Sveinsson, the vertical black stripes might have been inspired by the basalt landscape. Kálfshamarsvík stands at 21 metres high and was electrified in 1973.

Longships

My only United Kingdom lighthouse on this blog. Longships stands on Longships rocks off the coast of Lands End in Cornwall, in the far south of England. The tower you see today is the second version. The rocks had been a danger to shipping for centuries and in the late 1700s work began on putting a lighthouse on the highest of the Longships rocks. The first tower was lit in 1795, with keepers working in one month stretches. Issues were rapidly found, because the waves got high enough that they obscured the light of the 1795 tower. In 1875 it was replaced by the granite tower you can see today. It stands at 35 metres and was automated in 1988.

North Head

In a change of pace, and weather, we’re back in Australia. This time in northern Queensland and the Whitsundays, for North Head lighthouse. It’s a bit tricky to see in the above photo, but it’s on the lump of rock on the first island. North Head was built in 1866. It’s built of Maryborough hardwood and iron sheathed. It’s not 100% known if there were keepers on the island or not. There was a domestic structure at own point, but it was removed to the nearby town of Bowen at a date no-one seems able to agree on. The light is no longer lit, the windows and the lamp were both stripped out completely in the 1980s. The lamp, which you can see below, is housed in Bowen historical society.

Point Lonsdale

Back to Victoria for our next lighthouse. Point Lonsdale stands on one of the ‘Heads’ of Port Phillip Bay. Guarding the narrow and very dangerous entrance known as The Rip. The current light commenced operation in 1902, replacing an earlier timber structure dating to the 1860s, that was little west of the current light. Point Lonsdale is built of concrete and has 2 metre thick walls, it is 37 metres above sea level and points into Port Phillip Bay. The octagonal base was built in the 1950s to create a spot where morse code and radio could be sent to passing ships. Previously it had been done by flags. At this point additional red and green lights were added below the main light as indicators of the tides in the Bay. It was electrified in 1934. In the photos below you can also see some of the remains of the WWII fixed position defences of Point Lonsdale.

Port Fairy

Still in Victoria, but moving down the coast. The lighthouse on Griffith Island, at Port Fairy in Victoria’s Western District, is one I’ve written about before. Which you can read here. You’ll notice a lot of photos in the gallery below. I’ve been going to Port Fairy since I was born, and the lighthouse is always a must visit friend. You’ll see it in plenty of weathers and times in the pictures. The lighthouse was built by the Victorian Public Works Department in 1859, it was originally painted red. It’s 11 metres tall and is built of bluestone with a basalt base. With Cape Schanck it’s one of only three Victorian lighthouses to have an internal stone spiral staircase, which you can also see in the video below. The lamp was another Chance Bros. Fresnel lamp and is now automated. The last lighthouse keeper lived there from 1929-1954. Griffiths Island is now connected to the mainland by a causeway but in the 1800s the island was only accessible by boat and it was often dangerously rough so was cut off completely from the mainland. It was extremely isolated. The island was originally 3 islands, Rabbit (on which the light house stands), Goat and Griffiths. They have joined together as one island, partly from coastal erosion and partly from the construction that surround the islands. They serve to protect the entrance to Port Fairy.


Going up the spiral staircase

Portland

About an hour along the coast from Port Fairy, you’ll find the Whaler’s Bluff lighthouse in Portland. The lighthouse first stood on Battery Point, just a little further round the coast. It was first lit in 1859. In 1889 the battery emplacement guns began to be installed at Battery Point and the lighthouse was moved stone by stone to Whaler’s Bluff, where you find it now. The current light stands 40.5 metres above sea level and can be seen for 24 km out to sea. It flashes white and red every 30 seconds.

Rottnest Island

We’re travelling back to Western Australia. This time to talk about two different lighthouses – both on Rottnest Island. The first is Rottnest lighthouse – on the left- and Bathurst Point lighthouse – on the right.

Rottnest Island is about an hour off the coast of Perth Western Australia, and as you can see boasts two lighthouses.

We’ll start with Rottnest Island Lighthouse. This is the second lighthouse on this site- the first was built using First Nations prisoners as unpaid forced labour. The second by paid contractors. This one opened in 1896 and is 30 m tall. It’s built of local limestone with a Chance Bros Fresnel lamp, that is still operational, though it is now automated. It was electrified in the 1930s and personned until 1990.

Bathurst Point is the subsidiary lighthouse on the island. It was built in 1900, again from the local limestone. It was built so ships could use both lights and navigate the reefs using triangulation. It was electrified in 1986. What I found fascinating about Bathurst Point is that it’s easily accessible by foot at night, so I actually got to see it in operation which you can see in a videos below. The photo above is also one of the pictures on my lighthouse wall I mentioned at the beginning. The other is Port Fairy, but it’s a painting by a local artist so I can’t show it here.

Slow flashes
Quick flashes

Skardsviti Lighthouse

We return to Iceland, for the final Icelandic lighthouse for this blog. Skardsviti was built in 1950, again making it one of our more recent lighthouses, and it was first lit in 1951. It was built to improve navigability for ships crossing the Arctic Sea. Like Kálfshamarsvík it was designed by Axel Sveinsson. It stands at 14 metres tall and is 53 metres above sea level. It was electrified in 1980 and automated by 1992. It flashes white, red and green every thirty seconds.

Skellig Michael

I’ve written about Skellig Michael – the extraordinary 6th century monastic settlement on a rock 13km off the coast of Ireland into the Atlantic – before. You can read that here. But, while Skeillig Michael is deservedly known for the monastic settlement, it also has a lighthouse. Most of my photos of it are at funny angles because they were taken from a smallish boat on a slightly bumpy sea. There were actually two lighthouses on Skellig, both built in the 1800s, and one of which is still in operation today. It is automated. In the 1800s there was a vast increase in trans Atlantic trade and the seas around Kerry were notoriously dangerous. The Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin, known as the Ballast Board, decided to solve the issue by building a permanent light on Skellig. Work began in 1821 and was finished in 1826. The two lights were built, the upper light and the lower light, to make it easier to distinguish Skellig from other lighthouses on the Irish coast. Both towers were roughly 14 metres tall. The upper light was 121.3 metres above sea level and lower light was, predictably, lower at 53.3 metres above sea level. The upper light was intended as the primary light and its beacon was visible for 40 km. However, because it was higher it was frequently shrouded in heavy mist and it was discontinued in 1870. The lower light however continues to be used to this day. It was fully automated and unpersonned in 1987 and it remains one of the first lights ships see when approaching the Irish coast from the west.

Split Point

As we draw towards the end of our exploration of lighthouses, we return to Australia. If you ask most Australians what Split Point Lighthouse means to them, well if you show them a photo anyway, they’ll either start singing ‘have you ever, every felt like this, when strange things happens then you’re going Round the Twist’ or say it’s the Round the Twist lighthouse. Round the Twist was a fantastically weird ABC children’s show that aired in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. And it was set at Split Point lighthouse – though the interiors were filmed in a studio. Of all the lighthouses on this list I’d say Split Point is the most embedded in Australian culture. But it also has an interesting history in its own right.

Split Point is still very much a working lighthouse- it’s a fixed light (because it’s not on an island) and the Fresnel lamp projects the small electric light 30m out into the sea. It’s automated and its signature is 4 flashes every 20 seconds. The lighthouse was built in 1891, and was first automated with acetylene gas in 1919. It stands at 34 metres and is made of concrete. It was built as a beacon for ships having passed Cape Otway and remains so today. The stair case inside is also particularly lovely.

St Kilda

The inclusion of the St Kilda Marina’s pilot beacon could be seen at slightly controversial, as it technically actually isn’t a lighthouse. It was, however, built very deliberately in the shape of a lighthouse and as an urban light structure is still worth having a look at. St Kilda, an inner Melbourne suburb, started building the marina in 1960s, opening the first pens in 1968. As part of the construction a pilot light was needed, and the decision was made to build an 18 m fibreglass structure that resembled the traditional lighthouse form. And that’s what the St Kilda Marina’s pilot beacon became, an unofficial lighthouse. While it’s arguable if it is a lighthouse, it’s also possible that if it looks like a lighthouse and kind of acts like a lighthouse, then maybe it could be seen as a lighthouse even if it wasn’t entirely built to be one?

Table Cape

For our second last lighthouse we’re back down in Tasmania. Table Cape is on the north west coast of Tasmania, sticking out into Bass Strait. In the near by Port of Wynyard the first light in the mid 1800s was actually a local man called Mr. Fenton leaving a light on in his window to guide ships in. The Marine Board soon built two iron beacons at the mouth of the Inglis River in 1870, but when they proved insufficient Table Cape was built in 1888. The lighthouse stands at 25 metres and is 180 metres above sea level, it also has a Chance Bros. lantern that was electrified in 1979 and it was unpersonned in the 20s. Table Cape itself is a flat topped cape that juts out into the Strait, I don’t have any pictures of the piece of coast the lighthouse commands though because it was so foggy we couldn’t even see the water. Saw some lovely pademelons though.

Wollongong

And so we have reached the end of our lighthouse journey, and fittingly we are finishing with not one, but two lighthouses. Wollonogong in New South Wales is an industrial city south of Sydney, and it boasts two lighthouses.

The first we’ll be looking at is the one on the left. It’s Flagstaff Point Lighthouse and was first lit in 1937. It was designed to be automatic and not require a lighthouse keeper, making it unique on this list. The lens dates to 1862, as it was originally supplied to Gabo Island lighthouse in Victoria (a lighthouse I really want to go and visit this year). Flagstaff Hill is built of concrete and stands at 25 m tall.

Our second, and final, lighthouse is the Wollongong Breakwater lighthouse that was built in the 1870s of wrought iron and a ferro concrete base. The light no longer shines at all and it was extinguished in 1974. Though a decorative light is still sometimes shone. The structure has proved difficult from a preservation perspective, because the wrought iron plates and the railings deteriorated significantly and it was almost demolished in the 1970s. The local community rallied behind it though and it was restored, keeping most of the original configuration including internal wooden ladders, in the late 1970s with further restoration in the early 2000s

And that brings us to the end of our, somewhat eclectic, lighthouse tour. I hope you’ve found it interesting. In pulling all of this together, what I started noticing are the many commonalities about lighthouses, across countries and governments. Very similar designs have been used going right back to Hook lighthouse in the 1200s, to have a light on a tower to protect ships traversing coastlines all over the world. The colour schemes are also similar and their stories of automation and unpersonning follow the same patterns. No matter how you look at it, lighthouses remain a vital part of our marine safety infrastructure and they are still beautiful structures on stunning pieces of coast. So if nothing else I hope you have enjoyed the pictures. This has been an interesting one to write, because it’s crossed a fair amount of time for me, as you’ll see from the photos of me cropping up a bit. The earliest pictures are one Port Fairy photo and all the Kangaroo Island images. They’re all from 2006 when I was 17, which just goes to show just how long I’ve been fascinated with lighthouses….

References :

Site visits over a variety of years.

All the contemporary photos are mine

Barrenjoey

https://historicalragbag.com/2017/11/19/barrenjoey-lighthouse/

Cape Bruny

https://www.capebrunylighthouse.com/

https://parks.tas.gov.au/explore-our-parks/south-bruny-national-park/cape-bruny-lighthouse

Cape Borda

https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/goodliving/posts/2020/10/kangaroo-island-lighthouses

Cape Du Couedic

https://lighthouses.org.au/sa/cape-du-couedic-lighthouse/

https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/goodliving/posts/2020/10/kangaroo-island-lighthouses

Cape Jaffa

Image : https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+11009

https://www.capejaffalighthouse.org.au/cape-jaffa-lighthouse-history

Cape Leeuwin

https://lighthouses.org.au/wa/cape-leeuwin-lighthouse/

Also notes from lighthouse tour in 2023.

Cape Naturaliste

https://www.capesfoundation.org.au/visit-experiences/cape-naturaliste-lighthouse/#collapse-experience-about-1

Also notes from lighthouse tour in 2023.

Cape Northumberland

https://lighthouses.org.au/sa/cape-northumberland-lighthouse/

Cape Reinga

Signs at site visit in 2024

Cape Schanck

https://historicalragbag.com/2017/07/18/a-tale-of-two-lighthouses/

Cape Tourville

Signs at site visit in 2019

Cape Willoughby

https://lighthouses.org.au/sa/cape-willoughby-lighthouse/

https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/goodliving/posts/2020/10/kangaroo-island-lighthouses

Dyrhólaey Lighthouse

https://ust.is/english/visiting-iceland/protected-areas/south/dyrholaey/culture-and-history/

Fort Denison

https://historicalragbag.com/2019/07/28/fort-denison/

https://lighthouses.org.au/nsw/fort-denison-lighthouse/

Gantheaume Point

https://lighthouses.org.au/wa/gantheaume-point-lighthouse/

Hook Lighthouse

https://historicalragbag.com/2015/08/16/hook-lighthouse/

Kálfshamarsvík lighthouse

https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/regina/kalfastrandavogur-extraordinary-basalt-columns-in-skagi

https://chanceht.org/lighthouse/kalfshamarsvik-lighthouse/

Longships lighthouse

https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses-and-lightvessels/bishop-rock-lighthouse

North Head

Bowen Historical Society display

https://lighthouses.org.au/qld/north-head-lighthouse/

Point Lonsdale

Signs at site visit 2023

https://lighthouses.org.au/vic/point-lonsdale-lighthouse/

Port Fairy

https://historicalragbag.com/2017/07/18/a-tale-of-two-lighthouses/

Portland

Sign on site visit in 2006

https://lighthouses.org.au/vic/whalers-bluff-lighthouse/

Rottnest

Signs and tour on site visit in 2023

https://lighthouses.org.au/wa/bathurst-point-lighthouse/

Skardsviti Lighthouse

https://meanderingwild.com/skardsviti-lighthouse-iceland/

Skellig Michael

https://historicalragbag.com/2015/06/14/skellig-michael/

https://skelligislands.com/lighthouses-on-skellig-michael/

Split Point

signs and tour site visit 2025

St Kilda

https://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/media/vgiofq3k/built-heritage-st-kilda-marina-heritage-report.pdf

Table Cape

https://lighthouses.org.au/tas/table-cape-lighthouse/

Wollongong

Signs on site visit in 2018

https://lighthouses.org.au/nsw/wollongong-harbour-lighthouse/

Barrenjoey Lighthouse

Barrenjoey Lighthouse stands on the Barrenjoey Peninsula at Palm Beach, an hour’s drive north of Sydney. The lighthouse is at the entrance to Pittwater, Broken Bay and the Hawkesbury river giving it truly magnificent views.

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The lighthouse is built of local sandstone and the current structure dates to 1879-1881.

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The lighthouse can be reached either by a gentle track, but there are also smugglers steps. These were not used by smugglers but were used by the customs house at the bottom of the Peninsula to climb up and look for smugglers.

IMG_0440Barrenjoey was not the first light station in this position. The first light station was only oil lamps on two wooden towers and stood between 1865 and 1881. The current structure was built by Isaac Banks with a team of Scottish labourers and designed by government architect James Barnet. Barnet was responsible for many buildings in Sydney and he deliberately designed the slightly curved rail around the top of the lighthouse for aesthetic reasons. The rails are original, and they produce quite a vertiginous effect when standing next to them.

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The lighthouse stands at 29 m and is 113 m above sea level. The visibility of its lamp is 38 km and it currently runs a Fresnel Stationary lens with a 100 W 24 volt quartz-iodine tungsten lamp. You can see the lens and the lamp in the photos below.

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Originally the lighthouse ran on a kerosene lamp and thus three lighthouse keepers were needed to make sure that it kept burning. They worked in shifts of four hours and they were not allowed to have a bed up in the lighthouse (only a chair) in case they fell asleep. The interior and the exterior of the lighthouse is still in beautiful condition.

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Only married men were allowed to be lighthouse keepers and there were two houses on the peninsula. The biggest and the closest to the lighthouse housed the head lighthouse keeper and his family and the two assistant lighthouse keepers and their families lived in the other.

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In 1932 the light became acetylene, it was automated and the lighthouse keepers were removed. In 1972 the light was changed to electric. The electric light was a 1000 w 120V quartz-halogen tungsten lamp. You can see it below.

IMG_0502A lighthouse needs to be identifiable from sea and today Barrenjoey operates 4 flashes separated by a 2 second interval every 30 seconds.

Originally, as the Fresnel lamp in the lighthouse is stationary, Barrenjoey used coloured glass (red) over the lamp, but this greatly reduced the intensity of the light. When the acetylene lamp was introduced in 1932 it was able to flash and the coloured glass could be removed.

Barrenjoey had a number of lighthouse keepers over the years but only one is buried there.

IMG_0541George Mulhall was born in c.1811 in Australia and both his parents were convicts from Ireland. George was appointed lighthouse keeper in 1868 and his son who was George Jr became assistant keeper. This was before the construction of the current lighthouse and the keepers lived off the Peninsula on what is now the third tee of the Palm Beach Golf Course. When the lighthouse began operating in 1881 George was the principal lighthouse keeper. There were stories that George died from being struck by a bolt of lightning and burnt to cinders, but his dead certificate describes him as having died from a stroke in 1885. His wife Mary who died in 1886 is buried with George. It is a truly beautiful spot to be buried.

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Barrenjoey Lighthouse is very much still an important part of navigation for ships coming up and down NSW’s coast. It is also a stunning place to visit, the views alone are worth it.

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References:

Site visit 2017.

All the photos are mine.

A Tale of Two Lighthouses

I’ve always liked lighthouses, I like their solidness, their proximity to the coast and their utility whilst still being beautiful. Growing up on the coast there were two that were constant fixtures in my life, Cape Schanck Lighthouse and Griffiths Island Lighthouse in Port Fairy.

You can see both below

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Cape Schanck

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Port Fairy

Cape Schanck is part of the Mornington Peninsula just south of Melbourne in Victoria. Port Fairy lighthouse is on Griffiths Island at the head of the entrance to the Moyne River in Port Fairy, which is in western Victoria. I grew up on the Mornington Peninsula and have been visiting Port Fairy my whole life. So I couldn’t fail to notice the similarities between the two lighthouses.

There are clear visual similarities between the two structures and they were actually built at almost the same time as well. Cape Schanck was constructed between 1857 and 1859, along with the other buildings of its lightstation, by the Victorian Public Works Department. Port Fairy was built by the Victorian Public Works Department in 1859, it was originally painted red. Cape Schanck stands at 21 m and Port Fairy at 11m. Cape Schanck was built of limestone and Port Fairy of bluestone with a basalt base.

Both lighthouses are now automated, but their original lamps, which would have run on oil, were both constructed by the Birmingham company Chance Bros. The original clockwork mechanism survives at Cape Schanck. Cape Schanck’s beam reaches nearly 30 miles into Bass Strait and Port Fairy’s reaches 12 miles. They are both Fresnel lamps. The other key similarity is that both lighthouses have internal stone spiral staircases, two of only 3 surviving pre 1863 lighthouses to do so.

You can see the spiral staircase in the Port Fairy lighthouse in the video below. (the music is the Wellington Sea Shanty Society and is called Great Open Sea, it’s licensed under Creative Commons)

 

Port Fairy is, unusually for a lighthouse, built at sea level, as you can see below.

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Where as Cape Schanck stands on an 80 m cliff

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The two lighthouses were built in a time when lighthouses were key to travel and commerce in the fledgling colony. Cape Schanck was built as part of a sea road of 3 lighthouses patrolling Bass Strait. The other two were Cape Whickham and Cape Otway see below.

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Port Fairy was built to mark the entrance to the Moyne River and Port Fairy harbour, which at the time was a thriving port. See below

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They have both been in continual operation since the 1850s, though they are both now automated. They are fantastic examples of the remoteness of Victorian lighthouses and their lighthouse keepers.

Cape Schanck stands on an isolated peninsula, which is now a national park, and commands its part of Bass Strait.

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IMG_0156Port Fairy’s Griffiths Island is now connected to the mainland by a causeway, IMG_9161But in the 1800s the island was only accessible by boat and it was often dangerously rough so was cut off completely from the mainland. It was extremely isolated. The island was originally 3 islands, Rabbit (on which the light house stands), Goat and Griffiths. They have joined together as one island, partly from coastal erosion and partly from the construction that surround the islands. They serve to protect the entrance to Port Fairy. Rabbit island would have been extremely remote in the 1800s.

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Nothing survives of the lighthouse station at Port Fairy apart from the stand of Norfolk pines, which you can see in the photo above, which were planted by the lighthouse keeper as a windbreak. The quarters were demolished after the Harbour Master was relocated in 1956. The last lighthouse keeper who lived on the island was there from 1929-1954.

At Cape Schanck a number of buildings survived, as well as some later additions. There were lighthouse keepers living on site until 2016, though they had little to do with the running of the light and more to do with running the tourist accommodation that is also on site. The site is now run by Parks Victoria. The original Assistant Lighthouse Keeper’s cottage from 1859 can be seen below.

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While both lighthouses had a different specific purpose they both stood as a bastions against the wildness of the sea and protected ships, in an era when shipping was, apart from gold, the lifeblood of the growing colony. In the future I hope to look at more of Victoria’s lighthouses, but I thought this was a good place to start.

 

References:

Port Fairy

http://www.lighthouses.org.au/lights/Vic/Griffiths%20Island/Griffiths%20Island%20Lighthouse.htm#History

http://www.visitportfairy-moyneshire.com.au/activitiesattractions/coastal/466-port-fairy-lighthouse

http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/2711/download-report

Numerous site visits over the years.

Cape Schank

http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/8661

http://capeschancklightstation.com.au/history-of-cape-schanck-victoria/

http://www.lighthouses.org.au/lights/Vic/Cape%20Schanck/Cape%20Schank%20Light.htm

http://mpnews.com.au/2016/05/02/keepers-farewell-light-on-the-hill/

Numerous site visits over the years.

 

The photos are all mine.

Hook Lighthouse

Hook  Lighthouse on the Hook Head Peninsula is one of the oldest working lighthouses in the world. It stands as a testament to the both the danger of the seas around the Hook Head Peninsula and the importance of the travel route that passes its tip.

Hook Head Peninsula is at the tip of South East Ireland and is possibly the origin of the saying ‘by hook or by crook’. Tradition has it that when Cromwell was invading Ireland he said he’d take it by hook or by crook, meaning by Hook Head Peninsula or Crooke in County Waterford. Whether this is true or not is very much debatable, but it is a nice story regardless.

The lighthouse itself was probably originally begun in the early 1200s on the orders of William Marshal. Marshal came to visit the lands in Ireland that came to him by right of his wife Isabel de Clare in 1200-1201. They were caught in a terrible storm crossing the Irish Sea and Marshal vowed to God that if they survived he would found an abbey. The ship didn’t sink and Marshal kept his word. As thanks to God for their survival he founded Tintern Abbey, which also stands on Hook Head Peninsula. It’s known as Tintern of the Vow as well as Tintern Parva, meaning small in Latin. It can be seen below.
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It is a daughter house of Tintern Abbey in wales, which also stood on Marshal land. It can be seen below.

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Hook Head Lighthouse was possibly begun around c. 1210 as a landmark and to guide ships up to Marshal’s newly built port at New Ross. The River Barrow in New Ross can be seen below.

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The light would have been coal fired and quite simple. You can see what it looks like now in the photos below, as well as the view from around the lighthouse. The particular black and white striping is unique to the Hook lighthouse so it can be clearly identified by ships.

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The walls of the lighthouse are between 2-4 m thick and there are currently three main rooms.

The coal storage room from when the light was a fire

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The secondary lighthouse keepers room and the chief light house keeper’s room. When the lighthouse was originally built it was run by monks and this room would probably have been used as a prayer space.

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Above the fireplaces in the chief lighthouse keeper’s room you can see some brown coloured stains. These are the ox blood that was used in the plaster. The heat of fires has brought it to the surface. It is possible that some of the plaster was original. It was made with straw and horsehair and ox blood to tie it together.

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Tradition has it that there was some form of light on this position before Marshal had his constructed. In c. 500-1000 CE St Dubhan founded a monastery in roughly this position and the monks used to light a beacon fire to warn ships.

The first historical record of the light is in the 1240s when the monks from Churchtown were installed as lighthouse keepers. It can be presumed that they continued as such until the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. By the 17th century the light was untended, but numerous shipwrecks and complaints led to its restoration in the 1670s with the first glass lens to protect the coal fire.

In the late 1600s the lighthouse came into the possession of the Loftus family and they leased it to the authorities in 1706.

Following repeated complaints the coal fired light was replaced by an oil burning lamp in 1791.

In the 1860s the lighthouse keepers moved out of the tower and into separate dwellings

In 1871 new gas lights were installed, powered by gas which was manufactured in the gas yard. Paraffin oil subsequently became the source of power.

In 1911 a clockwork mechanism was installed so the light became a flashing one rather than a fixed beam. It had to be wound every 25 minutes.

The light became electric in 1972

In 1996 the lighthouse was automated ending 800 years of lighthouse keepers.

The current light is not open to the public, but a slightly earlier version can be seen in the coal store. It is made by Aga.

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Hook lighthouse has a fascinating history and the building itself is truly beautiful. What you can’t quite see in the photos is how tactile the walls of the lighthouse are. It curves in a way the photos just don’t translate.

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I’ve been to Hook Head twice.

Once in horrible weather.

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And once in lovely weather

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But whatever the weather it is a spectacular building, a spectacular setting and as one of the oldest operational  lighthouses in the world a real historical treasure. Not to mention it was probably begun by William Marshal, one of my favourite historical people. If you ever get the chance it is an amazing place to visit.

References: Notes from two site visits, 2012 and 2015 and http://hookheritage.ie/index.php/the-lighthouse/timeline/

The photos are all mine.

Marriage Alliances 1180-1250: Part 4 Isabel de Clare.

One of the most interesting heiresses of the period, not in the least because she was married to William Marshal, was Isabel de Clare. Isabel’s marriage to Marshal typified the incredibly important political role that the marriage of these heiresses played. These marriages were not only used as rewards, they were used to elevate men to real positions of power. In some occasions these men could help to change the face of a country, I would argue that Marshal was one of these and his marriage to Isabel was what gave him the status to have a real political affect.

Isabel herself is a little hard to pin down. In essentials she was the perfect medieval wife possessing of great fortune and very fecund, they had ten children, but she makes her own mark in a variety of interesting ways. While the History of William Marshal can not be taken entirely at face value the sentiment that is expressed throughout the work is that Isabel was actively involved in the rule of domains that were essentially hers.

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The marriage of Marshal and Isabel de Clare as depicted in the modern  Ros tapestry in New Ross in Ireland.

Marshal’s marriage to Isabel de Clare was the most significant elevation in his life. The lands that he gained, the children that he had from the marriage and the qualities of Isabel herself were the building blocks on which Marshal’s status was established. Marriage to Isabel gave Marshal substantial and geographically diverse lands as well as titles and wealth. In comparison, materially, Marshal brought little to the marriage because he was a virtually landless knight who only had one small estate in England and probably the rents of some lands in France. He had amassed considerable wealth however from his prowess on tourney field and he was known and respected by King Richard. Isabel gave Marshal lands in England, Ireland, Wales and what is now France and these lands gave Marshal both wealth and authority.[1]  Marshal’s marriage to Isabel mean that he made an indelible mark on her lands, not the least in Ireland. The affect Marshal had on these Irish lands illustrates just how much political change the marriage of an heiress could generate.

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Ireland under the Normans. You can see Leinster, Marshal’s lands, on the right.

David Carpenter, The Struggle for Mastery: Britain 1066-1284, London: Penguin Books, 2004, p. xx.

 Isabel’s Irish lands came to her from her father Earl Richard de Clare, known as Strongbow, who had gained them by force, and through her mother Aoife, the daughter and heiress of King Dermot MacMurchada of Leinster who was deposed as king in 1166.[1] Strongbow was a leader in a force spearheaded by English lords who won Leinster back for King Dermot. They were given permission to do so by their king Henry II in a letter recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis c. 1166. This was the beginning of the English occupation in Ireland.[2] The rewards Dermot gave Strongbow in return for his services were recorded in the relatively contemporary poem The Song of Dermot and the Earl: his daughter Aoife in marriage and his kingdom after his death. Dermot died in 1171.[3]

 

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Dermot’s grave in Ferns, Ireland.

Strongbow died in 1176 leaving a son and daughter too young to inherit and so Leinster was in the hands of the Crown until Strongbow’s son came of age. The son, Gilbert, died as a minor in 1185 and thus Isabel de Clare inherited everything. Marshal on marrying Isabel gained lordship of her entire estate.[4] Trouble could be expected from the local Irish population who were not likely to welcome a new overlord. These peoples included the English lords who had been settled there for more than a decade and the original Irish lords. Marshal faced an uphill challenge in controlling and developing Leinster and it was one at which he certainly succeeded

On taking possession of Leinster Marshal sent deputies but did not go himself until c. 1201, and then only for a brief visit. The Irish Annals found in The Chartularies of St Mary’s Abbey in Dublin recorded that Marshal was in Ireland c. 1201.

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All that remains of St Mary’s Abbey in Dublin.

They said that he came in a storm and, in thanks to God for his survival on the unforgiving Irish Sea, he founded the abbey of Tintern Parva.[5]

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Tintern Parva on the Hook Head Peninsula in Ireland.

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Depiction of the near disaster on the Irish Sea from the Ros Tapestry.

Marshal returned to Ireland in c. 1207 and faced rebellion, mainly from Meyler Fitz Henry. Fitz Henry was one of the original settlers, a bastard grandson of Henry I and had been appointed Justiciar of Ireland, ruler in the king’s absence, by King John. He was tenant in chief of some small fiefs, most of which he held from Marshal. Fitz Henry and Marshal were in repeated conflict and King John involved himself in Fitz Henry’s favour. Fitz Henry led many battles against Marshal’s lands both when Marshal was in Ireland and when he was not.[6] As can be seen in two charters from King John in 1216 Marshal ultimately managed to prevail and found his way back to John’s favour with Fitz Henry disgraced. The first granted Marshal Fitz Henry’s fees, a form of rent or tax, in Marshal’s own lands. The second said that if Fitz Henry should die or take the habit Marshal was to receive Fitz Henry’s fees in the Justicary’s jurisdiction, which effectively disinherited Fitz Henry’s son.[7]

As well as exercising control Marshal was responsible for developments such as the port town of New Ross. Marshal began New Ross, which still exists today, in c. 1207.[8] Once it was established, Marshal set about making it a viable port town. When he was back in favour with King John, c. 1212, Marshal negotiated to ensure that shipping could continue through Waterford and onto New Ross. Waterford was the main port and the Crown had controlled it since 1171.[9] Marshal needed his own port and New Ross suited well because of its deep harbour, river access to the heart of Leinster and links with nearby lordships.[10]

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 The Barrow river in New Ross.

New Ross is only one of the building and consolidation projects that Marshal undertook in his Irish lands during his lordship. He established other towns and also built a number of castles. He made settlements on the edges of nearby counties, retook land that had been previously lost and established monastic foundations and built a lighthouse which still stands today.

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 Marshal’s lighthouse on the Hook Head Peninsula.

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Ferns Castle which Marshal also built.

Marshal also took over lands that had lacked any kind of central authority because the Crown had run them for many years from a distance.[11] Marshal managed to establish a strong and stable lordship, despite the fact that he was so caught up in English affairs. This administrative skill ensured that he maintained his position as Lord of Leinster, as well as his other lands, and that he was sufficiently influential and experienced to become first the Earl of Pembroke, a title which he came to through right of Isabel, under King John in 1199 and then Regent in 1216.

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Pembroke Castle in Wales.

When Marshal married Isabel de Clare he became one of the most influential barons of his time because the marriage laws meant he became ruler of everything that was hers. When it came to marriage, a woman’s lineage, her family and connections, were as important as her lands. In Marshal’s case through Isabel he gained the physical lands themselves but also the eminence of her background as the daughter of an earl and the granddaughter of a King of Ireland.

Lineage and land were not all that Marshal gained from his marriage because the couple also had ten children, five sons and five daughters, all of who survived to adulthood.[12] All five daughters married influential and high ranking noblemen and only the youngest, Joan Marshal, was unmarried when her father died.[13] This gave Marshal alliances in a variety of noble families, another use for heiresses, and helped to give him the support he needed to stay in power even when he was out of favour with King John. It is due to his eldest son William that his memory survives today in such detail because it was he who commissioned the History. Marshal achieved what eluded many prominent landholders of his time because he had five sons thus having multiple heirs. When Marshal died his authority and legacy seemed safe and his position solidified, which must have made reaching the top of his society seem worthwhile because he had been able to protect all his family and to pass on what he created secure in the knowledge of its survival. Success in this time was intended to be dynastic rather than just personal. Unfortunately this was not to come to pass because, although Marshal never knew it, his sons all died childless and his lands were dispersed.[14]

 

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Chepstow Castle which Marshal gained from marriage to Isabel. He also built significant proportions of it.

Children, lineage and land aside, Isabel as a person and the role she played in the marriage and thus in Marshal’s ascent is much harder to define but just as vital and fortuitous. Isabel came to the marriage probably in her late teens while Marshal was in his early forties. Despite the age difference by all accounts she was an active participant in the marriage and in the governing of the lands. If she had not been it is unlikely that Marshal would have succeeded so well in holding together his disparate domains. She was not only his entrée into the high aristocracy, but her support was important to the retention of his authority. There may have been no legal repercussions if Isabel had not supported Marshal, but the people he ruled were her vassals and would have been more likely to rebel against their new untried lord without Isabel’s support.

Marshal trusted Isabel and her abilities enough to leave her in an administrative position in Ireland c.1207 during the fragile military and political situation, when King John forced him back to England. Before returning to England in c. 1207 the History reports that he said to his men.

My Lords, here you see the countess whom I have brought here by the hand into your presence. She is your lady by birth, the daughter of the earl who graciously, in his generosity, enfieffed you all, once he had conquered the land. She stays behind here with you as a pregnant woman. Until such time as God brings me back here, I ask you all to give her unreservedly the protection she deserves by birthright, for she is your lady, as we well know; I have no claim to anything here save through her.[15]

While it is very unlikely that he spoke these exact words the sentiment is clear. Isabel was Marshal’s key to ruling.

Isabel was a potent symbol to Leinster. She was the daughter of the Princess of Leinster and the granddaughter of its last king, which would have pleased the Irish lords. She was the daughter of Richard Strongbow who had been responsible for establishing many of current English lords, or at the least their fathers, in their lands in Leinster and because she was pregnant she represented the future of the lordship. By leaving her behind Marshal had a reasonable chance that many of his lords would cleave to her and thus his cause, which would leave him free to deal with King John.

Isabel proved a very able defender of Marshal and their lands in Ireland. Almost as soon as Marshal left, she found herself embroiled in war and by 1208 she was besieged in Kilkenny castle and “she had a man let down over the battlements to go and tell John of Earley that it was the very truth that she was besieged in Kilkenny.”[16] John of Earley came and Isabel’s men were victorious. It was also Isabel with whom Meyler Fitz Henry first made peace and it was recorded in History that “he [Fitz Henry] had made peace first with the countess and then with the earl’s men, and … he had given his son Henry as a hostage for his inheritance.”[17] Isabel was very much in command of the defence of her lands even if she could not physically lead men. Isabel was a unifying figure because of her lineage and without her presence in Ireland and her willing participation Marshal could have easily lost Ireland while he was trapped at John’s court.

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 Kilkenny Castle as it is today.

Defending her lands was not Isabel’s only involvement because she was also engaged in their creation and improvement. Marshal took the fact that his only claim to the lands was through Isabel very seriously because he made many developments in Leinster with charters that had Isabel’s ‘counsel and consent’ recorded on them.[18] According to Cóilín Ó Drisceoil there is a tradition that Isabel had been heavily involved with making the decision to locate the foundation of the town of New Ross on the Wexford bank of the Barrow River. This was not necessarily the most practical bank on which to build a town, as it was steep and required the building of one of the longest bridges in medieval Ireland. It was perfect however from a political point of view because Wexford was the centre of the former Kingdom of Leinster.[19] The earliest written mention of the tradition of Isabel’s involvement in New Ross’s foundation was in the 1607 work Britannia by William Camden.[20] Isabel understood the political imperatives in building a new city and made sure that they were carried out correctly. She also helped to ensure that Marshal remained lord of all their other lands as well because unlike other noble wives she commonly travelled with him throughout their domains and was involved in their governance. She was the symbol by which Marshal governed as well as an active participant.

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 St Mary’s Abbey which Marshal and Isabel built in New Ross.

Marshal and Isabel’s match seems to have become one of love. This was exemplified by the way Isabel behaved during and after Marshal’s prolonged death. Marshal first began to fall ill around the end of January 1219 and it took him until midday on May 14th 1219 to actually die.[21] A very moving picture of Isabel just after his death was painted in History “whilst mass was being sung it was observed that the countess could not walk without danger of coming to grief, for her heart, body, her head and limbs had suffered from her exertions, her weeping and her vigils.”[22] This was a final testament to a woman who had stood strongly by Marshal throughout much of his life and his protracted death and had continued to love him. Isabel died only a year later and was buried at Tintern Abbey in Wales.

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The Temple Church in London where Marshal was burried and his effergy.

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Tintern Abbey in Wales where Isabel was burried, no trace of her burial remains.

Marshal was given Isabel as a reward and as a way of binding a skilled warrior and an admired man to the new King Richard I in 1189. The authority bestowed on him by this land and the wealth he acquired through marriage meant that he had the ability to make an indelible mark on England. When King John died in 1216 he left a country in turmoil with many of the country’s barons in rebellion. The then approximately 70 year old Marshal was made Regent for the nine year old Henry III and under his direction the country was brought back from the brink and Henry III’s kingship saved. The situation was dire enough to prompt Marshal to declare, according to the History, when he assumed the Regency that “if all the world deserted the young boy, except me, do you know what I would do? I would carry him on my shoulders and walk with him thus,” “ and never let him down from island to island, from land to land.” [23] Marshal was the head of the government who defeated the rebellious barons and the French Prince Louis, later Louis VIII, who was the barons’ candidate for the throne of England.[24] Marrying wards to loyal followers as rewards was a long held practice and one that continued. Much of the time it had little overall effect, however on occasion it elevated a man such as Marshal to a prominent position in society which enabled them to have a far-reaching consequences on the political situation, often in multiple countries.

This will for the moment be the end of my series of noble marriages. I may come back to it at a later date.

All the photos, obviously baring the map at the beginning, are mine.

 

[1] Catherine A. Armstrong, William Marshal Earl of Pembroke, Kenneshaw: Seneschal Press, 2006, pp. 60-61.

[2] Giraldus Cambrensis, The Conquest of Ireland, (trans.) Thomas Forster, Cambridge: Parenthesis Publications, 2001, p. 13.

[3] Anonymous, The Song of Dermot and the Earl, (ed.) & (trans.) Goddard Henry Orpen, Oxford: the Clarendon Press, 1892, pp. 19-27.

[4] Armstrong, Earl of Pembroke, p. 77.

[5] John T. Gilbert, (ed.) Chartularies of St Mary’s Abbey Dublin with The Register of its House at Dunbrody and Annals of Ireland, Volume II, London: Longman and Co, 1884, pp. 307-308.

[6] Sidney Painter, William Marshal: Knight Errant, Baron and Regent of England, Baltimore: John Hopkins Press, 1933 pp. 145-146.

[7] H.S Sweetman, (ed.) Calendar of Documents, Relating to Ireland, 1171-1251, London: Longman and Co, 1875, p. 106.

[8] Cóilín Ó Drisceoil, “Pons Novus, villa Willielmi Marescalli: New Ross, a town of William Marshal” in John Bradley & Cóilín Ó Drisceoil, (eds) William Marshal and Ireland, Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 8-9. A note about this particular text. I am unsure what is happening with the publication of this text. I was very kindly sent advanced chapters and given clear permission to use them for reference in my thesis. I feel that as the sections of this post in which I am using this information are almost verbatim from my thesis that this permission should extend to this post. I am endeavouring to discover what has happened to the publication of this book, but it seems as if it may have actually fallen through, I’m not sure. I still think the information is worth including though.

[9] Sweetman, (ed.) Ireland, p. 99.

[10] Ó Drisceoil, “New Ross” in Bradley & Ó Drisceoil, (eds) William Marshal and Ireland, pp. 10-11.

[11] Adrian Empy, “The Evolution of the Demesne in the Lordship of Leinster: the Fortunes of War or Forward Planning?” in Bradley & Ó Drisceoil, (eds) William Marshal and Ireland, pp. 36-38.

[12] T.L Jarman, William Marshal: First Earl of Pembroke, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1930, p. 99.

[13] Anonymous, History of William Marshal, (ed.) AJ. Holden, (trans.) S. Gregory & (notes.) David Crouch, Volume II, London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 2002. pp. 410-411.

[14] Matthew of Westminster, The Flowers of History: Especially as they Relate to the Affairs of Britain from the Beginning of the World to the year 1307, (ed.) & (trans.) C.A. Yonge, Volume II, London: AMS Press, 1968 , pp. 257-258.

[15] History, Volume II, pp. 177-179.

[16] History, Volume II, p. 193.

[17] History, Volume II, p. 195.

[18] Ó Drisceoil, “New Ross” in Bradley & Ó Drisceoil, (eds) William Marshal and Ireland, pp.11-12.

[19] Ó Drisceoil, “New Ross” in Bradley & Ó Drisceoil, (eds) William Marshal and Ireland, pp. 9-11.

[20] William Camden, Britannia, (trans.) Phillemon Holland, at http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/irelandeng1.html#ireland1, accessed 05/12/14.

[21] David Crouch, William Marshal, Knighthood, War and Chivalry, 2nd ed, London: Pearson Education, 2002, pp. 138-140.

[22] History, Volume II, p. 453.

[23] History, Volume II, p. 287.

[24]D.A Carpenter, The Minority of Henry III, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990, pp. 17-64.