Northern lights

The Scottish coastline remains one of the most dangerous in the world. The story of how her margins were lit is one of determined engineering endeavour and heroic struggle against the elements. The Northern Lighthouse Board, formed in 1786, continues to assist mariners and live up to its motto 'In Salutem Omnium', for the safety of all.The story begins in Egypt, with one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, for all lighthouse builders have learned from their predecessors. Using the collections of National Museums Scotland, this account shows how the world's first rock lighthouse in the dangerous English Channel at the Eddystone Reef off Plymouth was first destroyed by storm and then by fire, before being made in stone, and outlasting the rock itself. The lessons learned there were absorbed by the young Robert Stevenson, whose apprenticeship with his stepfather Thomas Smith allowed him to experience at first hand the darkness and the dangers of Scotland's perilous coastline. Stevenson's building of a lighthouse on the dangerous Inchcape Reef, or Bell Rock, 11 miles from Arbroath, would prove to be his most important engineering success.Robert Stevenson's family was associated with lighthouse construction for a further three generations, not only in Scotland, but in Newfoundland, Burma, Japan and New Zealand. This account, drawn from their writings and illustrated by the unmatched collection of light-house artefacts; often made for exhibition at the nineteenth century international trade fairs in London and Paris, now held by National Museums Scotland, is brought up to date with how the Northern Lighthouse Board operates today.