Toward Lighthouse

Toward Lighthouse was completed in 1812, on Toward Point, some six miles south of Dunoon, and is one of 18 Scottish lighthouses built by Robert Stevenson (1772 - 1850). Characteristic Range: Flashing white every 10 seconds, range 22 nautical miles.

Initially constructed with a circular building around the base, the keeper's cottage was added in 1878, when the circular building was removed. A further addition was made in the 1960s. The central keeper's cottage with the flat roof was built in the late 1920s, when a third keeper was engaged. Parts of the most westerly cottage on the site are thought to be from an original farmhouse building, which pre-dates the lighthouse.

The lighthouse tower contains a circular staircase with an enclosed central well. The base of the tower housed a large fuel tank which supplied a vaporised paraffin (kerosene) burner. A recent conversation with engineers from Clydeport revealed that the light was gas powered for much of it's life. The gas initially came from Innellan gasworks, which would explain why the modern plastic gasmain runs all the way down to the lighthouse. Normally, deposits from this illumination system kept the keepers busy, as the more usual Fresnel lens has numerous individual glass segments to be cleaned. Toward differed from this norm in that it was originally equipped with a reflector. In 1930, a new parabolic, silver-backed glass mirror was installed, and found to be more efficient, easier to install (unlike factory set lenses, the mirror could be adjusted on site), easier to clean as the reflective coating was on the rear, and one third the cost of an equivalent lens. The mirror was rotated by a clockwork mechanism, powered by a large weight which dropped slowly down the central well. It was the keeper's job to wind the weight up to the top at regular intervals, tend to the lamp's wick every two or three hours, and ensure it was continuously fuelled during the hours between sunset and sunrise. Today, all lighthouses are automated, with electrically powered illumination and rotation, and Toward was automated sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s.

The Dunoon Observer c. 2007 carried an article about the lighthouse, suggesting that the mirror based system was favoured because it ensured that the character of the light was sufficiently different from that of the nearby Cloch Lighthouse to avoid confusion of the two. Said to have described the character as being a combination of the exposed steady light of the lamp, plus the periodic flash of the light reflected in the mirror. This seems to be an odd suggestion, since the Cloch flashes every 3 seconds, and Toward every 10 seconds, and the two characters were deliberately chosen to be diverse to avoid confusion. There is also no reason why the same character could not be equally created using mirrors or lenses. Unfortunately, we have not seen the actual article, so do not know what the actual suggestion was, or the logic behind it.

Foghorn

Lighthouse, foghorn building and
Clyde ferry behind
© Zak

An early description of the installation noted Toward to contain a reed foghorn operated by compressed air, furnished by engines of 15 HP. The signal was one 3 second blast every 20 seconds.

Toward's original foghorn was steam powered, and housed on top of a separate shoreside building lying a few metres southeast of the lighthouse. Two Kelvin diesels, later replaced the steam engine, driving compressors which provided the compressed air to power the foghorn. Eventually replaced by an electrically powered horn attached to the lighthouse tower, Toward's foghorn was withdrawn from service in the 1990s, as were all other.

Accommodation

Published in 1956, A short history of the Clyde Lighthouses Trust described the accommodation at Toward, "On the appointment of an assistant keeper at Toward for the first time, in 1850, the Trustees had to be at pains to divide the reconstructed dwelling house nicely, no doubt with care for the sensibilities of the womenfolk concerned, 'viz: the Principal Keeper to occupy the whole of the new House and the old Kitchen; and the Assistant Keeper to be allowed to occupy the old back Parlour on the Ground floor and the whole of the upper floor'".^[1]

Since all the buildings now (2008) associated with the lighthouse are single storey this is hard to understand, although there is physical evidence of the attached house being extensively modernised and reroofed at some time. There are skylights visible in the roof, but these are all associated with light boxes to illuminate the interiors of rooms on the ground floor, where there is no physical evidence of a stairway to be found.

Did the Assistant Keeper occupy the attic space, or was what is now Taynuilt Cottages - the original accommodation block of 1850? Local folklore attributes a connection with the lighthouse but suggests accommodation for construction crews. This is not supported by old mapping, which shows the lighthouse but not the cottage.

Toward Point Perch beacon

Noted on the 1924 1:10,5600 Argyllshire map of the area was a beacon, sited on an area shown as Toward point Perch, and marking the edge of the shallow water to the south of the point. This still appears on later mapping.