Let your love light shine
HIGH up on a rock, 12 miles off the coast of Arbroath, stands a storm-battered stone structure: Bell Rock lighthouse. The rain passes, the sun shines, the gulls circle; no matter what, Bell Rock stands proud, as it has done since 1811, warning of the reef below.
The lighthouse occupies a peculiar place in our collective imaginations. Visiting La Corbière lighthouse in Jersey in 2019, I was captivated by this ancient structure. It felt like a snack-sized portion of Enid Blyton in front of my very eyes and I longed to climb in and tuck into some ginger beer with the lighthouse keeper. Yet he is no more. There are more than 330 lighthouses in the British Isles today, the majority of which are managed by one of three authorities: Trinity House, the charity dedicated to safeguarding shipping and seafarers in England, Wales and the Channel Islands; the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB),