The shores of the UK are littered with wrecks of ships that have sunk on our dangerous rocky coastline. Lighthouses are essential buildings that help sailors navigate these waters.
The first lighthouses were beacons and fires on hillsides. The first recorded lighthouse was built in Alexandria in Egypt in the 3rd century BC.
Since then technology has improved. The first successful lighthouse projector was designed by William Hutchinson in 1763.
The first flashing lighthouse 'optic' was designed by the French physicist, Augustin Fresnel, in 1822.
Today, some lighthouses can project a beam that is visible from 28 miles out to sea.
Orfordness Lighthouse
© Trinity House
Trinity House looks after:
- 71 lighthouses
- 11 light vessels / light floats
- 412 buoys
- 19 beacons
- 48 radar beacons
- 7 DGPS reference stations
These include a mix of nearly 600 visual, audible, electronic, fixed and floating aids to navigation. There are a few examples:
- Storm-lashed lighthouses like Bishop Rock in the Western Approaches
- Light vessels and buoys marking the English Channel, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world
- Modern differential global positioning service (DGPS).
Visit the Trinity House website to find out more about lighthouses around the UK
You recognise cardinal buoys and lateral
marks at night by their flashing lights
At night a sailing yacht should show:
- Red and green sidelights AND and a white light at the back of the boat (stern)
- OR the three lights can be combined at the masthead as tricolour
