Blacksod Lighthouse is situated at the southern end of the Mullet Peninsula, Erris

Erris

Erris is a barony in northwestern County Mayo in Ireland consisting of over , much of which is mountainous blanket bog. It has extensive sea coasts along its west and north boundaries. The main towns are Belmullet and Bangor Erris. The name Erris derives from the Irish 'Iar Ros' meaning 'western...

, County Mayo

County Mayo

County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...

. The lighthouse was built in 1864 by one of the leading merchants in Belmullet

Belmullet

Belmullet is a coastal Gaeltacht town with a population of around 2,000 on the Mullet Peninsula in the barony of Erris, County Mayo, Ireland. Its name means the "mouth of the mullet"...

 at that time, Bryan Carey.
The lighthouse is made of local granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 blocks which are believed to have come from close by Termon Hill which is an isolated granite outcrop of high quality granite on the peninsula.
The keeper's house is a two storey square building, which has always been unpainted. It is occupied by a resident lighthousekeeper who is also responsible for Blackrock lighthouse - see below. The house at Blacksod was badly damaged by a rogue wave in 1989 but has since been repaired and is still occupied.

Blacksod is of unusual design for a lighthouse, being a square block of a building with only a small conical lantern section on top of it which is painted white. Although it is easily accessible as it is beside Blacksod Pier, it is not open to the general public.

Blackrock Lighthouse

The lighthouse at Blackrock was also built in 1864. It sits on a high rocky island, 12 miles west of Blacksod and is accessible only by helicopter. Black Rock is favoured by sea anglers as it has a large variety of fish in its environs but it is a dangerous place for boats to stay too long as swells and waves are large. It is a 50 foot high round stone tower with lantern and gallery attached to a single storey keeper's house although there is currently nobody living on Blackrock. The lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

 is painted white. It is one of Ireland's most remote lighthouses. In 1999 the light was converted to solar power

Solar power

Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...

ed and one of the keeper's houses was restored to provide accommodation for work crews visiting the island to carry out maintenance on the lantern.