I have just added this to the map of places to fly your drone at Drone Scene:
Land owner permission not required.
Pendeen Lighthouse was built in 1900, and was automated in 1995. TOAL from adjacent car park.
The originator declared that this location was not inside a Flight Restriction Zone at the time of being flown on 26/03/2019. It remains the responsibility of any pilot to check for any changes before flying at the same location.
Little social history lesson in the photo; 3 keepers, 3 keepers’ families, 3 gardens, 3 fields, 3 rather palatial chicken coops built in good, solid, no messin’ about Trinity House style! The foghorn and it’s compressor house are bottom left, the keepers looked after this as well.
They worked ships’ watches, 4 hours on and 4 off in rotation, and kept logs as if it was a ship; made sense since they were drawn from the ranks of seamen and fishermen. At least it isn’t Flannan Isle…
Or the Smalls, a reef off Pembrokeshire. At that time lighthouses were kept by two men, and in 1801 two who were taken out to the light for a 3-week turn of duty. They were known to be men who did not like each other, but duty was duty…
The weather deteriorated and they were there for some time before they could be relieved. This was not a matter for any great concern, the light was adequately stocked with fuel and provisions, and there was sufficient fresh water in the tank for a long stay. But, after a period, the light was reported not lit; clearly something had gone wrong on the Smalls…
What had happened was that one of the keepers, in trying to repair a window smashed in by the storm, had fallen and died of his injuries. His mate was unable to save him, and realised that he would have to keep the body until relief arrived in order to prove that the man’s injuries were not consistent with his having murdered him.
After a few days, the practicalities of living with a decaying corpse became apparent and the smell became unbearable, so he built a coffin for the corpse. He then lashed this firmly to the outside of the lighthouse, and waited for the weather to abate. A particularly violent storm hit, and the coffin was loosened from it’s lashings with the lid torn off, with the result that it hung just outside the window, with the corpse hanging half-out of it. One of the arms hung loose, swinging in the wind, with a crooked finger, beckoning, beckoning, tapping on the window and always, beckoning…
Alone with such a ghastly apparition, storm-wracked, and terrified, the other keeper lost his mind, and was a gibbering lunatic when relief finally arrived. He never recovered fully, and of course it was the end of his light-keeping career! The incident changed Trinity House policy and from that time, lights were always kept by 3 keepers
