Baily Lighthouse on Howth Head
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Ireland
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Location |
Howth Head, County Dublin Ireland |
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Coordinates | 53°21′41.6″N 6°03′08.8″W / 53.361556°N 6.052444°WCoordinates: 53°21′41.6″N 6°03′08.8″W / 53.361556°N 6.052444°W |
Year first constructed | 1814 |
Automated | 1996 |
Construction | granite tower |
Tower shape | cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern centered on the keeper's house |
Markings / pattern | unpainterd tower, white lantern, red rail |
Height | 13 metres (43 ft) |
Focal height | 41 metres (135 ft) |
Range | 26 nmi (48 km) |
Characteristic | white flash every 15 s |
Admiralty number | A5898 |
NGA number | 6652 |
ARLHS number | IRE-040 |
Ireland number | CIL-0890 |
Managing agent | Commissioners of Irish Lights |
The Baily Lighthouse is a lighthouse on the southeastern part of Howth Head in Dublin, Ireland. It is maintained by the Commissioners of Irish Lights.
The first lighthouse on this site was built in about 1667 by Sir Robert Reading, and was one of six that Reading had received letters patent to build from Charles II in 1665. The original facility consisted of a small cottage and a square tower which supported a coal-fired beacon. Parts of the original buildings remain. In 1790, the coal beacon was replaced with a set of six Argand oil lamps, each including a silvered copper parabolic and a bulls-eye glass pane. During this period, the lighthouse was maintained by the Revenue Commissioners.
In 1810, the Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin took over the operations. The original building's location was high on the headland, so the light was often obscured by fog. On December 5, 1811 a recommendation was issued that the lighthouse be moved south on the headland to Little Baily, or Dungriffen. A new tower and house for the keeper, designed by George Halpin Senior, the corporations’s Inspector of Works, was completed on March 17, 1814. The top of the tower stood 134 feet (41 m) above the sea, and the fixed white catoptric light was provided by a set of 24 Argand lamps and reflectors .
The area was the scene of a number of shipwrecks. On August 3, 1846, the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company's paddle steamer Prince ran into the cliffs about 2½ km north of Baily in heavy fog, and as a result it was decided that fog bells should be installed at the lighthouse. This work was delayed due to costs of other construction projects.
The most notable wreck was the tragedy of the PS Queen Victoria on February 15, 1853, in which over 80 passengers and crew died. The fog bell was finally installed in April, 1853, as a result of the Queen Victoria shipwreck and its subsequent Board of Trade inquiry.