Ordane Rock

The furthest offshore of the watched stations, and the rhythm the rest of the register keeps time against.

Ordane Rock sits eleven miles beyond the last of the inshore marks, on a granite stack that clears the swell by nine metres and not always that. The tower was cut and dressed on the mainland, numbered course by course, and rebuilt on the rock across four working seasons. Landings are possible on roughly sixty days a year. In the winter of 1953 the relief was delayed nine weeks and the two keepers aboard kept the light without interruption throughout.

Its character, three white flashes every fifteen seconds, was assigned in 1871 and has never been altered. Every other station in the register was given a character that could not be confused with it. In that sense Ordane Rock is the reference against which the whole coast is read, and the reason no two lights on this shore have ever shared a rhythm.

RANGE AGAINST THE REGISTER

Ordane Rock

24M

Corvenn Reef

8M

Saltmere Head

19M

Hallow Pier

6M

Vane Shoal

14M

Bractan Range

21M