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 June 13, 2026.

This week the pages for Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan, Southern Turkey, Fúzhōu in Fújiàn Province of China, Ulsan City in South Korea, and Southern England in the U.K. 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 Andreas Köhler for a comment on a lighthouse in Norway and to Jim Smith for comments on last week's revisions.

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

 


1906 Portland Bill Light, Portland, England, U.K., September 2023
Instagram photo by Janet Comer

A Month of Lighthouse News:.

  • June 13. The National Park Service announces that Old Saybrook Borough, Connecticut, has been selected as the new owner of the Lynde Point Lighthouse under the terms of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act.
  • June 13. Lighthouse Keepers announces a summer concert series with performances every other Wednesday, June 17 through August 26 at the Little Sable Point Lighthouse in Michigan.
  • June 12. Muskegon Lights needs to raise $225,000 to complete funding for a $1.6 million restoration of the Muskegon South Breakwater Lighthouse in Michigan. Work on the project is underway this summer.
  • June 12. In Long Island, New York, the Fire Island Lighthouseo Preservation Society plans two living history presentations celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the 200th anniversary of the original Fire Island Lighthouse.
  • June 11. The Frankfort North Breakwater pierhead in Michigan is closed now through June 30 and will close again July 10-31 for the over $300,000 preservation project at the Frankfort Lighthouse, the first phase of an estimated $1.1 million restoration plan.
  • June 10 The Algoma Lighthouse in Michigan has been removed to clear the way for reconstruction of the pier on which it stood. It will be restored and returned when the pier reconstruction is complete.
  • June 9. In Florida the Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society has $400,000 but needs to raise the rest of an estimated $1.8 million for a restoration of the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse.
  • June 6. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore is offering once a month guided tours to the 1896 Sultan Shoal Lighthouse, a historic guardian of the Singapore Strait. There has never been public access to the lighthouse before.
  • June 5. The Michigan Lighthouse Assistance Program (MLAP) has made two $60,000 grants, one for interior restoration of the Grand Haven Pierhead Lighthouse, and the other for restoration of the keeper's house at the Whitefish Point Lighthouse.
  • June 3 Ownership of the 1843 Gurnet Lighthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts, has been transferred to Project Gurnet and Bug Lights, the preservation group that has long been licensed to maintain it. This is the nation's oldest active wooden lighthouse.
  • June 3. The Coast Guard is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of a person or persons who stole the beacon of the Superior Entry Lighthouse in Wisconsin on May 13.
  • June 2. With a 2-year restoration of the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse in Wisconsin completed, a grand reopening celebration June 26 will include free tours, family activities, and live music.
  • May 31. The Edgartown Lighthouse in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, has been concealed by white protective wrapping for a $643,000 restoration project, stripping and replacing the exterior coating and repairing windows and ironwork. Work should finish soon.
  • May 30. To the relief of Lighthouse fans the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse in Florida appears undamaged by the explosion nearby of the New Glenn Rocket. The lighthouse is closed during the cleanup of the disaster.
  • May 30. The Fond du Lac Lighthouse in Wisconsin has been repainted, by the same company that has painted it many times over the years. (TV video).
  • May 28. A ceremony marks the opening of the recently restored Manistee Pierhead Lighthouse in Michigan, the first time this lighthouse has ever been open to the public.
  • May 25. The National Park Service has announced that due to multiple structural failures the 1896 Chequamegon Point Lighthouse in Wisconsin's Apostle Islands National Lakeshore will be remove sometime during the Summer. It will be stored for possible restoration and display.
  • May 23. In Florida crews this summer will repaint the St. Marks Lighthouse, Florida's second oldest lighthouse, and repair the front porch.
  • May 20. Preservation groups and city officials in Lewes, Delaware, are looking for possible new homes for the Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse, which needs to be moved from its crumbling breakwater location.
  • May 18. ICC and its subcontractor Robinson Iron are hard at work on the first phase of restoration at the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse in Florida.
  • May 15. The Dunkirk Lighthouse in western New York has opened for the season and will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the light station. The present lighthouse, a very popular tourist attraction, was built in 1875.


North Inner Breakwater Light, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan, March 2021
Instagram photo by AladdinCreation

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.


İskenderun Light, İskenderun, Hatay, Turkey, March 2018
Google Maps photo by Oğuzhan Sıvacılar

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.


Dōngluòdǎoběi Light, Liánjiāng, Fúzhōu, Fújiàn, Chinas
PRC Maritime Safety Administration Fúzhōu Office photos

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.


Seuldo Breakwater Elbow Light, Ulsan, South Korea, September 2021
Google Maps photo by Hyunwook Kim


St. Catherine's Light, Niton, Isle of Wight, England, U.K., August 2023
Instagram photo
by isleofwight.com

Articles about lighthouses:

Online Light Lists

Online Navigation Charts

Special Resources


South Outer Breakwater Light, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan, July 2021
Google Maps photo by Fábio Masaki


Mersin Light, Mersin, Mersin, Turkay, February 2026
Instagram photo by Murat Türkmen


Qīxīngjiāo Light, Fúzhōu, Fújiàn, Chinas, November 1998
PRC Maritime Safety Administration Shànghǎi Region photo


Hwaamchu Light, Nam-gu, Ulsan, Siuth Korea, October 2022
Google Maps photo by Ryu Jong-pan

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.

by permission


The Needles Light, Totland, Isle of Wight, England, U.K., October 2020
Instagram photo by Sarah Kerr

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Enoshima Light, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan, March 2024
Google Maps photo by Matthijs

Karataş Light, Karataş, Aana, Turkey,
Directorate General of Coastal Safety photo

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1906 Ulgi Light, Pangoji, Ulsan, South Korea, October 2023
Instagram photo by _jelly_book


Harwich High Light, Harwich, Essex, England, U.K., September 2022
Instagram photo
by spooky_von_strange


Steindeich Light (Leuchturm Elbe), Steindeich, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, June 2022
Instagram photo by adel_mirko


Stenshuvud Light, Simrishamn, Skåne, Sweden, April 2021
Google Maps street view by Alex Karpsson


Portofino Light, Portofino, Liguria, Italy, May 2022
photo copyright Capt. Peter Mosselberger; used by permission

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


Lý Sơn Light, Quảng Ngãi, Vietnam, June 2023
Google Maps photo by Nguyễn Quang Huy

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.