Garry Irvine, The North Queensferry Light Tower & Life of a Modern-day Lighthouse Keeper

A visit to meet the keeper of the world's smallest working Lighthouse.

I love a Lighthouse, and I am not alone. There is something so intriguing about a life dedicated to keeping a beacon lit on rough shores; a beam of hope projected into, and defying the darkness. I have fantasies of running away from the upside-down world and tucking-up to hermit in a lighthouse on some distant, rocky, impossible to reach sea-stack for the rest of my days...

”I want to marry a Lighthouse Keeper

& live by the side of the sea...

I want to marry a lighthouse keeper & keep him company.

I’d polish his lamp by the light of day so ships at night can find their way.

I want to marry a Lighthouse Keeper, won’t that okay, hey.. hey..."

-Erika Eigen

With so much modern automation, and far less reliance on travel by sea, it may seem like lighthouse keepers are ancient relics of a romanticized bygone past, but there are a few still lurking about, like Garry Irvine the lighthouse keeper of the tower light of North Queensferry Harbour, just outside Edinburgh, Scotland.

Garry was kind enough to speak to me, (and my furry friend Archie, who came along for the adventure), about his duties as keeper and even let me light the historic lamp!*

* The Harbour Light Tower is operated by North Queensferry Heritage Trust and you can arrange to visit (for free, though donations are suggested) and even light the light by contacting nqhtinfo@gmail.com

North Queensferry Light

North Queensferry* is a small village of around 1,000 residents on the Firth of Forth. It's the northern point of the Queensferry passage, (shortest crossing from the Kingdom of Fife to Edinburgh,) and was named after Queen Margaret who established the village & bequeathed free crossings in the 11th century for the benefit of pilgrims traveling to St. Andrews, and often travelled through Queensferry herself.

By the early 1800's up to 300 people a day, including stagecoaches, military, livestock, and comercial provisions were crossing the Forth @ Queensferry; 80,000 the year in 1811, despite the village itself only having a population of around 600! To assist with the increasing ferry traffic a pier was built and an Argand light was installed on the already existing signal tower on the north shore.

The current light tower was completed in 1817 to replace that makeshift light from 1811 (as the angle of the original proved to be too high to fully light the crossing.) It now sits at the north foot of the iconic Forth Rail bridge, (a UNESCO World Heritage Site.) Garry calls the bridge, built in 1890, "a triumph of the [architect's] intellect..."

The 'new' tower is only 23 feet (5m) high, and is the smallest working lighthouse in the world. It was designed by Robert Stevenson, a renowned Scottish civil engineer, with group of his engineering students. They built a small hexagonal stone tower which then, surprisingly, transitions into an octagonal glass lightroom (topped with copper dome, now painted grey) because the team reused the Argand lamp & housing from the old octagonal signal tower.

The lamp originally run on whale oil (replaced by a paraffin-burning light around 1850) provides three miles of light using a large parabolic reflector magnifying it's flame 2000 times.

The oil reserve, (heated by a cast iron stove to keep the whale oil from becoming viscous in the cold), holds enough oil to run the light for about 18 hours.

The tiny tower lightroom is so tight at the top it can barely accommodate even a standing keeper, who needless to say, can't live in the tower, but historically stayed in a separate home, attached to the old signal tower, across the street.

North Queensferry Light Tower was needed less and less after 1890, with the coming of the Forth Rail Bridge, (the largest steel cantilever bridge ever built, known as our grand old lady,) and the light was officially put out of commission in 1964 with the building of the Forth Road Bridge (worlds largest suspension bridge of it's day**) and the simultaneous closing of the ferry crossing. However, due to it's historical significance as one of Scotlands most important crossings the Lighthouse was reopened in 2010 and restored to full working order by 2014. It was ceremoniously re-lit by Princess Anne, running on vegetable oil these days, and has a wee lighthouse museum at it's base.

* The Scottish/ Gaelic name is Taobh a Tuath Chas Chaolais meaning Northern Side of Steep Strait, with Chas Chaolais referring to either or both North & South Queensferry - (The modern Scottish/ Gaelic equivalent of the English name is Port na Banrighinn = Port of the Queen)

** A third bridge, the Queensferry Crossing Road Bridge - longest cable-stayed bridge of it's kind - was recently erected in 2017 at the same site, making the entire Queensferry Crossing region a working time capsule of 300 years of transportation & Scottish engineering genius! (There is also sister light tower on the south shore side of the crossing that was extinguished in the1920's but hasn't been re-lit.)

The Lighthouse Keeper

Garry Irvine, secretary of the North Queensferry Heritage Trust, now maintains the light with a small team of volunteers. He also publishes the Trust's Newsletter. Garry met Archie and me on the old cobblestone John Rennie’s Town Pier (circa 1810-1813), just under the Forth Rail Bridge.

It was typical chilly UK winter's afternoon and I was bundle up warm. Garry, a slight man, with an inviting smile, trim white beard and charming Scottish glint in his eye, arrived wearing only a wooly ecru & black arrow knit, ringed crew jumper, over a button front and jeans; a cotton neckerchief tied at his throat and a jaunty denim cap.

He looked nearly identical to the photo I had seen of him in the 'Edinburgh News' article about the Light, where he's in the same sweater & neckerchief. The outfit must be a go-to "lighthouse keeper ensemble," and it suited him perfectly (a much friendlier, modern version of Willem Dafoe's quintessential bearded keeper from the disturbing film THE LIGHTHOUSE, 🤣 )

Despite his spot on styling, Garry is not a career lighthouse keeper, originally from Galloway in southwest Scotland, he is a retired ICT engineer, a former technical writer/author for LM Ericsson (a mobile phone manufacturer) and Hewlett-Packard, and an avid photographer. (Basically he designs, researches and writes about complex communication equipment for that is far above my level of understanding!) He moved to North Queensferry with his Norwegian wife, Karin and their family in the 1980's. They chose the idilic village, after seeing it on a mystery car tour, because it was as close to the 'countryside,' they dreamed of raising children in, as they could get near Garry's work in South Queensferry. After Karin's death, about 10 years ago, Garry started volunteering to keep busy.

He first showed me the quaint museum with it's historical paraphernalia supplemented by drawings of the lighthouse, done by visiting children, and a toy wooden lighthouse model that Garry had custom altered to allow guests to take it apart & re-assemble it to learn the different parts of a light tower. The museum also had Lighthouse & Forth Bridge postcards (as most museums/ tourist attractions do,) only several of these cards featured Garry's own photos.*

We then climbed the 24 spiral tower steps to the lightroom where Garry showed me how the lamp worked. It was an elegant, and more elaborate set up then I had expected. I don't know what I thought an oil-run light would look like but the real thing was quite beautiful with it's shiny brass oil tank feeding a delicate wick holder in front of the massive reflector lamp, and thin Victorian flute flu hovering above to let out the smoke.

The original light was in service a decade before matches were invented (around 1827) so the lamp used to be lit with tapers or spills; long, thin splinters of wood (essentially a match stick without the match head) or twisted hemp or paper; which where in turn lit by flint/ spark lighters - Garry has a particularly cool antique pistol flint-gun. Once lit, the keeper would have to keep constant watch to trim the wick and ensure the light was not blown out in rough weather, visiting the tower multiple times day & night.

It took me a minute to get the lamp lit, as it was a brand new wick, but I eventually succeeded and am now officially an "Honorary Lighthouse Keeper" (complete with certificate* as proof.)

Garry, who's nickname is Gadget Man, says his greatest joy working at North Queensferry Tower has been letting his engineer brain explore the intricate design and functioning of the light. In addition to tours and lighting the lamp, he also disassembles, cleans & polishes all the brass bits of the light by hand, before carefully reassembling and calibrating the parts to keep the original lamp in good order, which has allowed him to really understand and appreciate its inner workings.

He hasn't always been a fan of history (which he blames on a boring history teacher in school) but he is a Queensferry History Buff now, and enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge, particularly with the children that visit the light. And he's learned a great deal from visitors in return; he shared a story a little while back - in the book "MADE FROM GIRDERS" (about the Forth Bridge)^ - that a woman once told him at a fundraiser:

* Which may be even cooler than my Emmy certificate, as, despite what Hollywood would have you believe, movies/ TV rarely save lives...

^ OUR FORTH BRIDGE: MADE FROM GIRDERS by Barbara Henderson & Alan McCreadie

Unmoored's Profiles @ a glance... 

What does Garry hope to help more people understood about Lighthouses? He'd like people to remember & honor their purpose. While they are quite popular tourist attractions, often due to beautiful architectural designs and scenic locations near bodies of water that make for lovely (instagram worthy) views, the lighthouse's true significance can be easily overlooked. Spreading awareness and appreciation to a modern world, unfamiliar with the dangers of both historic, and even current, seafaring, of the vital & truly noble purpose of lighthouses (and lighthouses keepers,) as literal lifesavers, may be one of the most important parts of his lighthouse keeper duties and why he is proud to give tours and to be part of their long, sacred history.

Garry's personal favorite Lighthouses:  Bell Rock Lighthouse, barely visible off the coast of Angus Scotland. It's the oldest surviving sea-washed light, (meaning it stands on a rock reef completely surrounded by water) and was also designed & built by Scotland's most prolific lighthouse engineer Robert Stevenson, who supervised his first lighthouse built at just 19! (Stevenson was also grandfather of the famed Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson.)

And Mull of Galloway at the southernmost point of Scotland, also run by a local trust, with it's working Fog Horn and a light tower featuring fabulous views as far as Ireland! (Bonus - it also has vacation cottages rentals available.)

Garry's favorite Local Scottish Expressions: "Ah dinnae ken" = "I don't know" & "it wisnae me" = "It wasn't me" - (I won't speculate why both of Garry's favorite phrases are denials / evasions of responsibility, 🤣, but he attributes it to frequently getting mixed up in 'naughty stuff' with his brother when young.)

I thoroughly enjoyed my day as an Honorary Lighthouse Keeper!

I highly recommend visiting North Queensferry, for children & adults alike; the light tower is fascinating, the pier, waterfront & bridge are stunning (particularly at sunset), the villag, nearby walks & historic wells, are absolutely charming and you couldn't ask for a kinder, more knowledge host then my new Friend from the Road, Light-Keeper Garry Irvine.

NEARBY ATTRACTIONS:

• Forth Bridge Paths

• Fife Coastal Paths (running from Kincardine through Culross, St Andrews, Dundee at ending @ the Bridge of Earn east of Perth)

• City of Edinburgh

To Learn more about the North Queensferry Lighthouse & arrange to become an "Honorary Lighthouse Keeper" go to the Forth Bridge website or the Heritage Trust site. And to see Garry's photography visit his website or facebook page.