Round Island Lighthouse

Round Island Lighthouse stands on a small granite islet about two and a half miles north of St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly, and about six miles north-east of Bishop Rock. Trinity House built it in 1887, to a design by William Tregarthen Douglass, to light the northern approaches to Scilly, which had no light and were hazardous in fog. The tower is 19 m tall and sits on a 40 m mass of granite, putting the light 55 m above high water. It flashes white every 10 seconds and has a range of 18 nautical miles.

The building work took place in extremely difficult conditions, because the sheer rock face made unloading materials almost impossible. The lighthouse was electrified in 1966 and automated in 1987, and Trinity House now monitors it from Harwich in Essex. The first optic, installed in 1888, gave a single red flash every 30 seconds, to tell it apart from the white double flashes of Bishop Rock.

Round Island is not open to visitors. Apart from by helicopter, the only access is a flight of steps cut into the rock. The usual way to see the lighthouse is from the water on a boat trip from St Mary’s, and it is also visible from Tresco and St Martin’s.