The Lighthouse Directory

Welcome to the Lighthouse Directory, providing information and links for more than 24,700 of the world's lighthouses. Follow the Directory's new Bluesky feed (@lhdirectory.bsky.social) for the latest in lighthouse news and Directory updates. Latest update February 21, 2026.

This week the pages for Southeastern Maluku Province in Indonesia, Northern Taiwan, Calvados Department in France, Västernorrland County in Sweden, Puntland, Southern Somalia, Istria County in Croatia, Mexico: Northwest Coast, Central and Northern New York in the U.S.A., the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Tasmania in Australia, and the Jiāxīng area in Zhèjiāng Province in China have been checked and revised with improved information and many new photos.

Also in the Directory: A Checklist of Lightships in the world. Included are some 127 ships surviving, restored, abandoned, or recently scrapped.

Special thanks this week to David Bucy for a report of his visit to the Cabo Falso Lighthouse at the tip of Baja California, Mexico, and to Jim Smith for comments on last week's revisions.

GOOGLE SITE SEARCH (of ibiblio.org; include the word "lighthouse" in your search)

 


Selkirk Light, Selkirk, New York, U.S.A., October 2021
Instagram photo by solitude_wickie

A Month of Lighthouse News:

  • February 22. The Great Barrier Reef Authority is acting to demolish the dilapidated keeper's houses of the former Pine Islet Lighthouse in northern Queensland, Australia. The historic lighthouse, deactivated in 1985, was relocated to the mainland city of Mackay.
  • February 21. In Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the Public Works Committee will consider a resolution authorizing the city of apply for ownership of the Sheboygan Breakwater Lighthouse under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act.
  • February 20. The National Park Service is seeking volunteer keepers for the Au Sable Lighthouse on Lake Superior in Upper Michigan.
  • February 20. The keeper's house museum at the Seul Choix Lighthouse, also in Upper Michigan, is getting a much-needed new roof.
  • February 19. The $19.2 million restoration of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina will extend through 2026 to address cracks found in the cast iron supports of the gallery.
  • February 18. In Shelburne, Nova Scotia, the Sandy Point Recreation Group needs to raise $100,000 for urgently needed repairs to the Sandy Point Lighthouse.
  • February 12. An engineering study confirms it would be possible to relocate Florida's Mayport Lighthouse off the U.S. Naval Station grounds to a location where the public could tour it. The cost of a move was estimated at $6 million.
  • February 12. In Ohio the Marblehead Lighthouse Historical Society has hired its first Director, expanded its gift shop, and upgraded its keeper's house museum exhibits for the upcoming tourist season.
  • February 11.The Rockland, Maine, City Council adopts new policies that will allow the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse to be open to visitors every fair-weather day from mid-May to mid-October.
  • February 10. The Tillamook Coast Visitors Association in Oregon has awarded a $50,000 grant to the Friends of Cape Meares Lighthouse for restoration of the lighthouse's iconic 1st order Fresnel lens.
  • February 6. Fears are raised that the Point Moore Lighthouse, oldest lighthouse in Western Australia, could be lost to beach erosion without a robust protection plan.
  • February 5. The Rockland, Maine, City Council is considering changes to management policies for the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse, and some preservationists are alarmed by the proposal. Council wants the lighthouse open daily mid May through mid October..
  • February 5. In Michigan the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association is seeking volunteer keepers for the 2026 season at the Cheboygan Range Front Lighthouse.
  • February 2. The Lorain Lighthouse in Ohio is featured in a new movie, "Beneath the Light,: a supernatural thriller filmed at the lighthouse. The movie began streaming on Amazon Prime January 14.
  • February 1. The East End Seaport Museum in Long Island, New York, has raised $880,000 to launch the first phase of a major restoration of the Long Beach Bar ("Bug") Light. In this phase the foundation will be stabilized and a new, weather-resistant dock will be built.
  • January 31. The recently restored Manistee North Pierhead Lighthouse in Michigan will open for climbing for the first time on Memorial Day (May 25). It will be open daily through the summer.
  • January 31. The Maine Department of Marine Resources, in partnership with the Keepers of Burnt Island Light, is seeking a volunteer caretaker couple to serve as seasonal stewards of Burnt Island Lighthouse for the 2026 season.
  • January 30. In Québec the 1906 La Martre Lighthouse on the lower St. Lawrence estuary has been awarded the Heritage Lighthouse designation, giving it the protection of the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act.
  • January 28. The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse in New York's Hudson River was damaged by collision with a barge last April. Now there's bad news. Engineers have estimated that damage to the foundation of the building could cost $3.6 million.
  • January 27. The Municipality of Bayham, Ontario, is in negotiations with an unnamed organization to transfer ownership of the endangered 1840 Port Burwell Lighthouse, closed in 2023 due to structural problems. The tower is stabilized but a restoration would cost a least $1.5 million.
  • January 26. The Crooked River Lighthouse in Carrabelle, Florida, will celebrate its annual Park Fest on Saturday, January 31, with food, live music, arts, and an evening movie.
  • January 25. The Tawas Point Lighthouse in Michigan is seeking new keepers for two-week stays in the lighthouse, managing the property and leading tours. Keepers must apply in groups of four.


2001 Sombrero Light, Anguilla, May 2020
Google Maps photo by Rogue Travelers

About this site
Founded in 1999 (during the relocation of North Carolina's Cape Hatteras lighthouse), the Lighthouse Directory is a tool for research and study concerning lighthouses and efforts to preserve those lighthouses. The Directory provides a brief compilation of basic data for each lighthouse with links to other reliable information available on the Internet. Since the addition of the Hainan page in February 2009 listings cover the entire world. However, this doesn't mean the Directory is complete, because new information continues to come to light.

I'm glad to hear from site visitors, especially if you have lighthouse news or photos of rarely-visited lighthouses.

The Directory has over 30,000 links, and all of them were appropriate and legitimate when they were added. Occasionally, because a web site is hacked or a URL is captured, a link leads not to legitimate information but to an inappropriate site, such as a source of pornography or malicious software. Please let me know if this happens, and I will remove the offending link immediately.

This site is hosted by ibiblio.org, one of the largest free information databases online, maintained as a public service of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


Mersey Bluff Light, Devonport, Tasmania, Australia, November 2023
ex-Instagram photo by Aleesha Kristen

Definitions: What is a lighthouse?
To begin with some basics, an aid to navigation or navaid is a structure placed on or near navigable water to provide visual guidance to mariners. A beacon is an aid to navigation that is fixed in place (that is, not floating). A lighted beacon or lightbeacon is a beacon displaying a light, while an unlit beacon is called a daybeacon. Often, a lighted beacon is simply called a light.

Everyone agrees that a lighthouse is a lightbeacon that is, in some sense, a substantial building. There is some diagreement among lighthouse fans as to whether there should be restrictions on the design of the building, but standard dictionaries in English all have some form of this simple definition: "A lighthouse is a tower carrying a light to guide mariners." Indeed, in many languages the word for a lighthouse translates literally as "light tower" or "fire tower." The Directory adopts this definition: a lighthouse is a tower, at least 4 m (13 ft) tall and more substantial in cross section than a post, mast, or pillar, carrying or designed originally to carry a light to guide mariners.

Many lighthouses are enclosed buildings with walls of stone, brick, wood, concrete, metal, or modern composite materials. Many others are open skeletal (framework) towers of cast iron, steel, or wood. The light at the top of some lighthouses is housed in an enclosed lantern, but many lighthouses have the light exposed with no lantern. Historically lighthouses were powered with a variety of fuels, but today nearly all are solar powered.

The Directory includes listings of certain lights and other sites of interest to lighthouse fans that aren't lighthouses by this definition. The titles of those listings are enclosed in square brackets [...]. In addition, lighthouses destroyed or demolished since 2000 continue to be listed; their names are preceded by the hashtag #.

A light station is a collection of buildings including a lighthouse, staff quarters, and supporting structures such as a fog signal building housing a foghorn or fogbell, a boathouse, an oil house to store fuel for the light, and so on. A century ago all lighthouses required lightkeepers to maintain and operate the light, fog signal, and other equipment. Today practically all aids to navigation operate automatically, but some light stations have resident caretakers, still called keepers, to maintain the property and guard against vandalism.

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Ménshān Light, Hǎiyán, Jiāxīng, Zhèjiāng, China
PRC Maritime Safety Administration photo

The lighthouse listings
Dates shown for lighthouses are the dates when the light was first displayed; this may be later than the construction date in some cases. A station establishment date, when listed, is the date when a light was first displayed at or near the same location. Data concerning the characteristics (colors and flash patterns) of lights comes mostly from the U.S. Coast Guard Light List for U.S. lighthouses and from the U.S. NGA List of Lights or available national light lists for lighthouses in other countries.

The focal plane height of a light is the height above the surface of the water at which the light is displayed. (The level of the water surface is usually "mean high water," the level at an average high tide.) In the listings, "focal plane" refers to the focal plane height. A lantern of a lighthouse is a room or structure that actually encloses the light.

The tower heights of the lighthouses themselves should be considered approximate. Different sources use different methods for measuring tower heights, and those heights may actually change due to changes in ground level at the base of the tower.

I have attempted to determine whether lighthouse sites and towers are open to the public. This information is inferred from whatever sources may be available; it is certainly not guaranteed. Please let me know if this information, or any information in the Directory, is incorrect.

Lighthouse listings are marked with ratings of zero to four stars based on the extent to which the light station is open to visitors. Check the ratings key to interpret these ratings.


Elat Light, Kei Islands, Maluku, Indnesia, May 2022
Google Maps photo by Rikhardus Tanlain


Keelung (Chilung) Light, Keelung, Taiwan, February 2024
ex-Instagram photo by Xie Xiaomei

Articles about lighthouses:

Online Light Lists

Online Navigation Charts

Special Resources


Ouistreham Light, Ouistreham, Calvados, France, August 2023
Instagram photo by Philippe Boisroux


Skagsudde Light, Örnsköldsvik, Vässternorrland, Sweden, October 2025
Google Maps photo by Michael Sobotka


Bodaso Range Rear Light, Bosaso, Puntland, Somalia, August 2024
Google Maps drone view by Dr. Abdulkadir Omar


Savudrija Light, Savudrija, Istria, Croatia, August 2025
Google Maps photo by Rob OL

Regional, state, and local lighthouse preservation organizations are recognized on each U.S. state page. U.S. organizations interested in lighthouse preservation nationally are:

  • The American Lighthouse Foundation, based in Rockland, Maine. ALF encourages preservation efforts throughout the country and holds preservation leases on more than a dozen New England lighthouses.
  • The United States Lighthouse Society, formerly based in San Francisco, has moved to the Point No Point Lighthouse in Hansville, Washington. USLHS has chapters active in the Chesapeake area, Long Island, Oregon, and Washington, and has been active in supporting preservation in other areas as well. The Society also publishes a respected journal, The Keeper's Log, and has a large collection of historic light lists of U.S. lighthouses.

Lighthouses on the Internet: A Researcher's Guide has replaced the list of links formerly on this page.


Isla Crestón Light, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico, March 2022
Google Maps photo by Salomon Tamagawa


Ogdensburg Harbor Light, Ogdensburg, New York, U.S.A., June 2023
ex-Google Maps photo by Maksim Mercuri

Buck Island Light, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, November 2021
ex-Google Maps photo by Nick Heinemann


Bluff Hill Point Light, Circular Head, Tasmania, Australia, December 2020
Google Maps photo by Marshall Cao


Barawa Light, Barawa, Somalia, posted September 2025
Google Maps photo by marabout ski


Baisajia Light, Guanyin, Taiwan, April 2021
photo copyright Felix Lin; used by permission


Högbonden Light, Kramfors, Västernorrland, Sweden, August 2022
Google Maps photo by Niklas Szeplaky

Lighthouses of the Americas

Northeastern United States

Southeastern United States and U.S. Caribbean

Midwestern United States

Western United States and U.S. Pacific Territories

Atlantic Canada and St. Pierre

Interior and Western Canada

Bermuda and the West Indies

Mexico

Central America

South America, Antarctica, South Atlantic Ocean

Lighthouses of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, Australia, and Africa

New Zealand and Pacific Islands

Australia

Indian Ocean

Africa

Lighthouses of Europe

Britain and Ireland

France and Monaco

Spain and Portugal

Italy and Malta

Southeastern Europe

Southwestern Russia and Ukraine

Belgium and Netherlands

Germany

Inland Central Europe

Denmark, Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland

Norway (listed south to north)

Sweden (listed south to north)

Poland and the Baltic States

Finland

Northwestern Russia (listed southwest to northeast)

Lighthouses of Asia

Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and Caspian Sea

Arabia, Iran and Pakistan

India

Southeast Asia

Philippines

Indonesia

China and Taiwan

Korea (listed clockwise around the peninsula)

Japan (listed clockwise around the main islands)

Asiatic Russia


Rt Peneda Light, Brijuni, Istria, Croatia, June 2023
Google Maps photo by Alexander Nolle

Thanks to:

Hundreds of lighthouse fans around the world have enriched this site with their assistance, information, suggestions, and corrections. For a long time I tried to maintain a list of these many friends and contacts, but it has grown too long (and too out of date) to display here. However, I must recognize the late Michel Forand for his suggestions and corrections touching essentially every page of this work, and extend thanks to Jeremy D'Entremont, Ted Sarah, Klaus Huelse, and Andreas Köhler, who have followed the development of the Directory for years. More recently Jim Smith has read nearly every page carefully, correcting errors and suggesting useful additions. Each of them has contributed information and support in vital ways, and the Directory would be much less useful without their participation.

In addition to Michel Forand, I want to recognize the contributions of two other experts on lighthouse history who have passed in recent years: Terry Pepper, the Executive Director of the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association (GLLKA), and Tim Harrison, the founding editor of Lighthouse Digest magazine. Both made useful and supportive comments on the Directory.

Formalities

Written by:

Russ Rowlett, Retired Adjunct Professor of Mathematics and Professor of Education
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

You are welcome to email the author (rowlett@email.unc.edu) with comments and suggestions.

All material in The Lighthouse Directory is copyright 2026 by Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Many images are presented by permission of their copyright holders, as noted under the image.

Permission is granted to copy portions of the Directory for personal use and study, but all other rights are reserved. You are welcome to make links to this page or to any page of the Directory, provided you credit the source and do not present the work as your own.

Please do not copy the contents of any page of the Directory to another site. This is an infringement of copyright, and it also deprives your users of the benefit of improvements and corrections made to the page. Everyone has permission to link to this page or to any page of the Directory.

The information contained in the directory is as accurate as I can make it; please notify me if you find any errors. Neither the author nor the University of North Carolina assumes any liability for uses made of the information presented by this web site.