The South Bishop Lighthouse is a 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....

 on South Bishop Island (also known as Emsger

Emsger

Emsger or South Bishop is the largest of the Bishops and Clerks group of islets and rocks, situated west of Ramsey Island, Pembrokeshire, Wales.Its name can also be shown as Em-sger, Emskir or Emskyr...

), a small rock approximately 5 miles (8 km) west of St Davids Head

St Davids Head

St Davids Head is a headland in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, in southwest Wales. This headland is considered the southern limit of the Irish Sea in Wales....

 in Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....

, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

.

Designed by James Walker

James Walker (engineer)

James Walker, FRS, was an influential Scottish civil engineer of the first half of the 19th century.Walker was born in Falkirk and was apprenticed to his uncle Ralph Walker in approximately 1800, with whom he gained experience working on the design and construction of the West India and East India...

, it was built on the island in 1839, acting both as a waymark for vessels navigating offshore and as assistance to ship

Ship

Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...

s navigating around the island group.

The lighthouse was converted to electric operation in 1959, and in 1971 a helipad

Helipad

Helipad is a common abbreviation for helicopter landing pad, a landing area for helicopters. While helicopters are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard surface away from obstacles where a helicopter can safely...

 was constructed at the site. Finally, the lighthouse was automated and demanned in 1983.

Like many in the UK, it is now monitored from the control centre at Trinity House in Harwich

Harwich

Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...

, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, England.

It was built in the path of many migrating sea birds, and the brilliance of the light at night often led the birds to dash themselves against the lantern. Many died and, when Trinity House and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Bird Notes and News was first published in April 1903.The title changed to 'Bird Notes' in 1947. In the 1950s, there were four copies per year . Each volume covered two years, spread over three calendar years...

teamed up, they together came to the conclusion to build special bird perches on the side of the lighthouse lantern. After this the amount of deaths decreased considerably.