Haulbowline Lighthouse

The elegant, tapering stone tower of Haulbowline Lighthouse was built to a design of George Halpin. Originally, it was painted white, but it was restored to its natural colour in 1946. Located at the entrance to Carlingford Lough, near Cranfield Point in County Down, the fixed white light was first exhibited in September 1824 with a half tide light displayed from the balcony halfway up the seaward side of the tower. This was lit to indicate that the tide was such that there would be enough depth for ships to pass into the lough. Until 1922, during daylight hours, a large black ball used to be hauled up on a gantry above the lantern to indicate tidal conditions, and a bell was struck by weight driven machine every 30 seconds in foggy weather. It must have been quite the spooky sight in the half light for the communities along the shorelines!

The lighthouse was built on the eastern part of the Haulbowline rocks, one of a number of navigation hazards at the seaward end of Carlingford Lough. Construction of the 34-metre-high  stone tower was a remarkable achievement considering its location on a semi-submerged rock with fast currents running around it. The principal light is displayed 32m above sea level changing from fixed to occulting to its current character of flashing white three times every ten seconds.

The light was converted to electric and made unwatched automatic on St Patrick’s day in 1965 and the fog signal was permanently disestablished on 8 January 2009.

Location:     54°01.196′ North, 06°04.740′ West.

Elevation:    32 M

Character:   Fl (3) W 10s.

Range:         18 km