The block you see facing you house the engine room and
oil store and Number 3 Lighthouse Cottages my address for five and a half years. The oil store and engine room is now the
home of the Museum. Steve and his collegues have sourced with the help of donations from the lighthouse board and well wishers
a collection of lighthouse material and exhibits. The fog signal engines and ancilliary equipment will need carefull restoration
if the foghorn is ever to sound again. I along with my lighthouse collegues the late John Lamont PLK, Ron Ireland 1st
ALK, Howard Cline LAK, Jimmy Fyffe and Jimmy McGowan the Occasional Keepers were the last to sound the Horn back in 1987.
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| A panoramic view |
You can see the entire Mull of galloway in this photograph, from fishermens point to East & West Tarbert. I don't
know if fishermen's point is its real name but its the favourite spot among the limited places where you can fish from.
As you can clamber down to within thirty feet or so of the water and the ebb tide current brings lots of nutrients it is a
good place to catch mackrel. You can see the road winding its way down to the Tarberts; in the last days of the keepers
our children would have to either walk to or be driven to Tarbert in order to pick up the School bus. Thankfully in the end
both Ron and I drove but in the early days of my posting there, I was the only Keeper with children of school age so when
i was on watch Margaret my wife would have to walk the children down, there was one very stromy morning when our Kirsty was
almost blown away.
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| The Station and the foghorn |
The foghorn is about 70 feet above the water but that still
leaves a good trek of 160 feet up to the lighthouse and to aid Keepers and visitors alike the gravel path has steps and a
handrail in the steepest parts. There can be
a dispute over number 3 lighthouse cottages being the first or last house in Scotland, well I'm always a bit cautious
when it comes to making claim, So as getting to the Mull of Galloway other than by road is frought with danger that only the
foollhardy or the insanely brave would attempt then I'll settle for living in the last house in Scotland
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| Lighthouse ,visitor center and Gallie Craig coffee house |
The visitor center was once the garages for the keepers and when the Station was manned there was just a car park for visitors
. The Gallie Craig offers the visitor spectacular clifftop views as well as providing them with some refreshment. The
Mull of Galloway has always been a place for visitors to the region from around the world to come and see and we keepers used
to say to them, "You can see five Kingdoms from the Mull", most would get three some would get four but seldom would
you find a visitor to include the kingdom of heaven as the fifth.
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