The lighthouse was designed by George Halpin, one of the prominent civil engineers of the era. The light was first lit on Saint Patrick’s Day 1817, using sperm oil wick lamps and parabolic reflectors, showing red to the Atlantic and white to Lough Swilly.
Soon after the Saldanha was wrecked Captain Hill of the Royal Navy in Derry wrote to a member of the Ballast Board suggesting that a lighthouse should be built at Fannet Point, as Fanad Head was then known. The Saldanha would not have been wrecked, he insisted, if there had been a lighthouse at the entrance to Lough Swilly. Permission was granted and work began in 1815 with a budget of £2,000
Shipwrecks of Lough Swilly and the North Atlantic
The North Atlantic is an area rich in maritime history, and there are numerous fascinating shipwrecks off the coast, many of which can be dived today.
In 1914, HMS Audacious was one of the early losses of World War 1. A King George V-class battleship, she never actually got to engage in combat. On 24th October 1914, while on training exercises, she struck a German naval mine northwest of Fanad Head and was lost, although thankfully her 900-strong crew were saved. Three ships including RMS Olympic were tasked to try to tow her into Lough Swilly but the tow lines snapped in the heavy seas and Audacious was lost.
The wreck of the SS Empire Heritage is one of Europe’s most significant dive sites. This 15,000-tonne steam tanker was sunk by a U-Boat torpedo attack in 1944, 20 miles north of Malin Head, en route from New York to Liverpool with a cargo of war supplies. 113 lives were lost. The wreck site today is renowned for the array of Sherman tanks strewn eerily around the seabed.
One of our closest shipwrecks is that of SS Laurentic, a British ocean liner of the White Star Line. Built in Harland & Wolff in 1908, the same year as Titanic, the Laurentic was converted to an armed merchant cruiser at the beginning of WW1.
On 23 November 1917, Laurentic departed Liverpool for Halifax, Canada with 479 on board and a secret cargo of gold, payment for munitions from Canada and the United States. She stopped at Buncrana two days later, under doctor’s orders to let a small number of passengers with yellow fever symptoms disembark.
From Buncrana she sailed for Fanad Head, where they were to meet an armed escort. The weather was ferocious with a blizzard blowing, but when the escort didn’t show, Captain Norton decided to proceed regardless, despite reports of U-boat sightings in Lough Swilly earlier in the day. Within an hour of leaving Buncrana, disaster struck.
The Laurentic struck two mines laid by the German submarine U-80. One of the mines hit near the engine room causing the ship to lose power. The ship was plunged into darkness, and was unable to send a distress signal. She sank within the hour.
354 men were lost in the disaster and bodies washed up on shore for weeks afterwards. Many had frozen to death in their lifeboats as they tried to reach land. Over the next seven years, more than 5,000 dives were made by Royal Navy divers and most of the 3,211 gold ingots were recovered. However, 22 bars have never been recovered.
The bell of the Laurentic hangs in the COI church in Portsalon village, and in 2007 a gun was recovered and put on display at Downings pier. The wreck of SS Laurentic lies 3 miles north-east of Fanad Lighthouse.
Did You Know?
The tower is 22 metres high from foundation to the top of the tower (not including the lantern). The light is 39 metres above sea level and there are 76 steps in the tower - 59 spiral granite steps and 17 ladder steps.
The Lighthouse staff consisted of a Principal Keeper and an Assistant Keeper who lived in the lighthouse with their families. The staff was supplemented in wintertime by a third light-keeper, known as a Supernumerary, who used temporary accommodation at the back of the lighthouse.
Fanad is one of 11 lighthouses in County Donegal (the others are Saint John’s Point, Rotten Island, Rathlin O’Birne Island, Arranmore Island, Ballagh Rocks, Tory Island, Buncrana, Stroove, Dunree and Inishtrahull - the most northerly lighthouse in Ireland).
Fanad Lighthouse survived a lightning strike on the night of 20/21 December 1916.
Children who lived at the lighthouse attended Ballymichael School, a 1.5 mile walk (uphill most of the way). Being a Gaeltacht (Irish speaking) school, this would have given them an opportunity to experience the Irish language, if they were not native speakers. While it may have been an upheaval being moved from lighthouse to lighthouse as part of their father’s job, they most likely made friends with the local children and perhaps became part of the community more readily than their parents.
The light is classified as a sea light as distinct from a harbour light although it does mark the entrance to Lough Swilly which is a natural harbour of refuge.
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5 окт 2024
