St. Mary's Lighthouse
Encyclopedia
St Mary's Island, Tyne and Wear
St. Mary's Island is a small island made of sandstone near the seaside resort of Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, UK.St. Mary's Island was originally called Bates Island, Hartley Bates or Bates Hill as it was originally owned by the Bates family who were prominent locally. It is sometimes known as Bait...
, just north of Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay is a town in North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the North Sea coast and has a fine stretch of golden sandy beach forming a bay stretching from St. Mary's Island in the north to Cullercoats in the south...
on the coast of North East England
North East England
North East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...
. The small rocky tidal island
Tidal island
A tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands many of them have been sites of religious worship, such as Mont Saint Michel with its...
is linked to the mainland by a short concrete causeway which is submerged at periods of high tide.
While it no longer functions as a working lighthouse, it is easily accessible (when the tide is out) and is open to visitors and has a small museum, a visitor's centre, and a cafe.
The lighthouse and adjacent keepers' cottages were built in 1898 by the John Miller company of Tynemouth
Tynemouth
Tynemouth is a town and a historic borough in Tyne and Wear, England, at the mouth of the River Tyne, between North Shields and Cullercoats . It is administered as part of the borough of North Tyneside, but until 1974 was an independent county borough in its own right...
, using 645 blocks of stone and 750,000 bricks. It was built on the site of a monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
where a small sanctuary light would have acted as a guide to passing ships. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1984 and stands at 38m (120 foot) in height.
