South Stack Lighthouse
Interesting facts
- Before the first bridge was built in 1828, people crossed to the island in a basket hung from a hemp cable.
- The Geological Society of London counts South Stack among Britain's top 100 geosites for the tightly folded sandstone and shale layers visible from the steps.
- The light sits about 41 metres above the sea on top of the islet, and the lighthouse complex covers some seven acres.
- Its first-order rotating lens produces a white flash every ten seconds at an intensity of around 467,000 candela.
- The cover photograph of Roxy Music's 1975 album Siren, featuring Jerry Hall, was shot on the slope directly below the bridge.
- The French comic Les Gardiens des Enfers, published in 2010, sets most of its story in the South Stack lighthouse in 1859.
- Harbour porpoises, grey seals, Risso's dolphins and bottlenose dolphins are among the marine animals regularly seen from the cliffs.
Why it is worth it
South Stack Lighthouse stands on its own small island off the western tip of Holy Island, Anglesey, separated from the mainland cliffs by a narrow, restless channel of sea about 30 metres wide. The setting does most of the work: sheer cliffs rising some 60 metres from the water, and a white tower with its keepers' buildings perched on a rock known in Welsh as Ynys Lawd. The approach is part of the experience — a flight of roughly 400 steps zigzagging down the cliff face to a footbridge across the gap, and the same steps back up again.
The tower was designed by Daniel Alexander, surveyor to Trinity House, and first lit in 1809, originally with Argand oil lamps and reflectors. It stands 28 metres tall and throws its light roughly 24 nautical miles. Around 1840 a small railway was added so that a subsidiary lantern could be lowered down the cliff to sea level when fog hid the main light — a detail that tells you how often the high light was lost in cloud on this coast. The waters beyond were notorious: in the great Royal Charter gale of October 1859, more than 200 vessels were driven ashore or wrecked around the British coast. The light was automated in 1984 and is now monitored from Trinity House's centre in Harwich.
What makes South Stack more than a lighthouse is the life on the cliffs. The surrounding headland is an RSPB reserve, where up to around 9,000 seabirds nest in season — guillemots and razorbills packed on the ledges, puffins in smaller numbers, with choughs and peregrines working the updraughts. Ellin's Tower, a small white castellated folly on the cliff edge, serves as the reserve's watchpoint with telescopes trained on the nesting ledges. From April to July the cliff is loud with birds, and the view down onto the tower, the bridge and the churning channel is one of the finest on the Welsh coast. The lighthouse itself opens to visitors seasonally, with the lantern and engine room on show.
Getting there
South Stack is about 3 miles (5 km) west of Holyhead, roughly ten minutes by car; Bangor, the nearest city, is about 39 km away. Holyhead is the end of the North Wales Coast railway line, with through trains from Manchester Airport (MAN) taking a little over three hours; there is no practical airport closer on the British side. The RSPB visitor centre and café have parking near the clifftop, and walkers can also reach the stack over Holyhead Mountain or along the coastal path from Breakwater Country Park.
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From the encyclopaedia
The South Stack Lighthouse is built on the summit of a small island off the north-west coast of Holy Island, Anglesey, Wales. It was built in 1809 to warn ships of the dangerous rocks below.
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