North Carr
Encyclopedia
A buoy was first placed on the reef in 1809. After much difficulty a more permanent, unlit, beacon was completed by Robert Stevenson
Robert Stevenson (civil engineer)
Robert Stevenson FRSE MInstCE FSAS MWS FGS FRAS FSA was a Scottish civil engineer and famed designer and builder of lighthouses.One of his finest achievements was the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse.-Early life:...
in 1821. Between 1877 and 1975 the beacon was supplemented by a series of lightships. The beacon still stands to this day, but the reef is now guarded by the Fife Ness
Fife Ness
Fife Ness is a headland , forming the most eastern point in Fife. It is situated in the area of Fife known as the East Neuk, and forms the muzzle of the dog-like outline of the latter when viewed on a map....
lighthouse on the mainland.
Description
The reef extends for 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northeastwards from Fife NessFife Ness
Fife Ness is a headland , forming the most eastern point in Fife. It is situated in the area of Fife known as the East Neuk, and forms the muzzle of the dog-like outline of the latter when viewed on a map....
Points Coastguard station (East Coast Fife) into the North Sea and the greater Firth of Forth. It is made up of some fourteen sandstone rocks that are completely submerged at high tide. These include Englishman's Skelly, Kneestone, Tullybothy Craigs, Lochaber Rock and Mary's Skelly. The word carr in Gaelic can be translated to English to mean the flesh of a seal or a whale, possibly because the rocks look like the back of a whale or seals or the animals were hunted on the rocks.
History
Shipwrecks around the reef include the schooner Louise; the trawlers James Ross & Festing Grindall; the tanker Vildfugl; the brig Andreas; the paddle steamer Commodore; the coaster Island Magee; the cargo steamer Einar Jarl & Bjornhaug.A buoy was first placed by the Northern Lighthouse Board in 1809, but this was found to be inadequate and would wreck in winter storms. The remains can still be seen of a second project, the North Carr Beacon. This was started in 1813 by Robert Stevenson
Robert Stevenson (civil engineer)
Robert Stevenson FRSE MInstCE FSAS MWS FGS FRAS FSA was a Scottish civil engineer and famed designer and builder of lighthouses.One of his finest achievements was the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse.-Early life:...
, a famous lighthouse engineer. Stevenson had just finished the Bell Rock Lighthouse
Bell Rock Lighthouse
Bell Rock Lighthouse is the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse and was built on Bell Rock in the North Sea, off the coast of Angus, Scotland, east of the Firth of Tay...
and was about to start a new lighthouse on the Isle of May
Isle of May
The Isle of May is located in the north of the outer Firth of Forth, approximately off the coast of mainland Scotland. It is 1.8 km long and less than half a kilometre wide...
, 8 miles to the south of North Carr. Since North Carr was barely uncovered even at low tide, work could proceed on only two or three tides each fortnight, so the plan was to work on it when conditions allowed and switch the men to the Isle of May at other times.
Stevenson planned a 40 feet (12.2 m) hollow tower topped by a bell. The bell would be rung by an ingenious mechanism powered by the tide. The foundations of North Carr were confined to just 18 feet (5.5 m) of fractured sandstone, a limited "toehold" compared even to Bell Rock (42 feet (12.8 m)) and whilst it was under construction parts of the structure were swept away in storms in 1815, 1816 and 1817. In 1817 the tower had been nearly complete when it was reduced to the fifth course
Course (architecture)
A course is a continuous horizontal layer of similarly-sized building material one unit high, usually in a wall. The term is almost always used in conjunction with unit masonry such as brick, cut stone, or concrete masonry units .-Styles:...
of stones, so the design was changed to a pyrimidal structure of cast iron columns with a ball on top. This was completed in 1821; £5,000 had been spent in total.
Northern Lighthouse Board
The Northern Lighthouse Board is the General Lighthouse Authority for Scotland and the Isle of Man. It is a non-departmental public body responsible for marine navigation aids around coastal areas.-History:...
by Alexander Stephen and Sons
Alexander Stephen and Sons
Alexander Stephen and Sons Limited, often referred to simply as Alex Stephens or just Stephens, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Linthouse, Govan in Glasgow, on the River Clyde.-History:...
of Dundee. This was sold in 1933 and replaced by a vessel built
North Carr Lightship
North Carr is the last remaining Scottish lightship. She is in length, in beam and 250 tons.The purpose of the vessel was to warn mariners by sight, light or sound of the dangers of the North Carr rocks which are situated 1.7 miles off Fife Ness at the turning point for vessels entering...
by A. & J. Inglis of Glasgow. This had a 1000W electric light, fixed at first and later flashing twice every half minute. It was moved to the mouth of the Clyde during World War II. The lightship broke adrift from her moorings in a gale on 8 December 1959 and all eight crew members of the Broughty Ferry lifeboat
Lifeboat Mona
The Mona was a lifeboat based at Broughty Ferry in Scotland, that capsized during a rescue attempt, with the loss of her entire crew of eight men. The Mona was built in 1935, and, in her time, saved 118 lives.- The loss of the Mona :...
died trying to rescue her. The crew of the lightship managed to set anchor off Kingsbarns and were taken off by helicopter the next day but the ship was not taken under tow until 11 December. The lightship was replaced by a lighted buoy in 1975, at the same time as a lighthouse was built at Fife Ness
Fife Ness
Fife Ness is a headland , forming the most eastern point in Fife. It is situated in the area of Fife known as the East Neuk, and forms the muzzle of the dog-like outline of the latter when viewed on a map....
on the mainland. The lightship was saved from the scrapyard in 2010 and funds are being sought by the Taymara charity to restore her as an exhibition space on the Dundee waterfront.