The Keeper

Lighting the lamp 0

Sgeir Dubh · Fl W 7s · 36 m · 18 M

The Keeper
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Sgeir Dubh Light · 57°41′N 8°19′W · Fl W 7s

Four rooms. One light. No one else for nine miles.

A working lighthouse on a black rock in the North Atlantic, with one keeper, four rooms, and the weather as the main event.

Reserve a night Take the light

Move your cursor — the light is yoursTouch the sea — the light is yours

01 The storm

Take the light.

Somewhere out there a boat has lost the coast. The lamp is yours now: aim the beam, find her, and hold it on her for two seconds. She'll find her way in.

  • MoveTouch aim the beam
  • Hold 2s on the boat — guide her home

Since 1861 the lamp on Sgeir Dubh has been lit every night of the year. It has never once been late.

Boats guided home

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    02 The rooms

    Four rooms, stacked up a tower.

    The keeper's quarters: a peat stove, a box bed and a small window onto the sea

    I Ground floor · Sleeps 2 · 24 m²

    Keeper’s Quarters

    The cottage the keepers lived in for a hundred and forty years. A peat stove, a bed built into the wall, and a window the sea comes right up to on a spring tide. The original log books are on the shelf. Read them.

    • Peat stove
    • Box bed
    • Log books, 1861–2002
    The fog signal room: a brass horn through the wall above a copper bath

    II Seaward end · Sleeps 2 · 30 m²

    The Fog Signal

    The old engine house for the horn, which still sounds at noon on the first Monday of the month. A copper bath under the horn’s brass mouth, walls a metre thick, and a window at the height of the surf.

    • Copper bath
    • The horn still works
    • Surf-level window
    The watch room: a curved window seat, a brass telescope and old sea charts

    III Level five · Sleeps 2 · 19 m²

    The Watch

    The room where the keeper stayed awake. Six small windows all the way round, a brass telescope, and a chart of every wreck on this reef. It is the first room on the rock to catch the dawn.

    • Windows all round
    • Brass telescope
    • Wreck charts
    The lamp room: a bed beside the great glass lens, with the sea on every side

    IV The top · Sleeps 2 · 16 m² · 118 steps

    The Lamp Room

    You sleep beside the lens. It turns all night, because it’s a working light, and a blackout curtain rings the bed. Almost everyone leaves it open.

    • Beside a working lens
    • Glass on every side
    • No signal, anywhere

    03 The crossing

    Nine miles, weather permitting.

    The Morag Ann leaves Ardcarra Quay at ten on Tuesdays and Fridays. It is fifty-eight minutes across if the sea agrees. The keeper makes the call at seven each morning, and the keeper’s call is final.

    Tue & Fri
    Out at 10:00 from Ardcarra Quay, back from the rock at 15:00.
    Two bags
    Soft ones. They are passed up the landing ladder by hand.
    If the sea says no
    We pay for your night at the Harbour Inn and try again in the morning.

    04 Dawn

    And then, the morning.

    At sunrise the keeper puts out the light. The sea goes flat and pink, the gannets come back, and you realise how far away everything is.

    Rates from £420 a night

    Nightly rates for two guests
    Keeper’s Quarters£420
    The Fog Signal£460
    The Watch£540
    The Lamp Room£680

    Per night for two. Every meal, the crossing and the keeper’s tour of the lamp included. Two nights minimum; the sea sometimes makes it three.

    Reserve a night Write to the keeper