The United Kingdom (officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) includes England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, the kingdom of Scotland has shared its monarch with England since 1603 and has been part of the United Kingdom since 1707. The coastline of the country is deeply cut by inlets, and there are more than 790 islands. The country has a long and distingushed maritime history; many of the most famous British captains and navigators have been Scots.
Scotland was divided historically into 34 counties; the counties no longer have any administrative function although they continue to have cultural significance. Most of them survive as lieutenancy areas, the areas used for the ceremonial lord-lieutenants, the monarch's representatives. Since 1996 the country has been divided into 32 council areas for the purposes of local government. This page covers lighthouses of northern Scotland in the Highland Council Area. The council area, by far Britain's largest, is the heart of the Scottish Highlands, including the northern third of the Scottish mainland as well as the large Isle of Skye, the so-called Small Isles, and a number of other islands at the northern end of the Inner Hebrides. It includes large portions of the historic counties of Inverness-shire and Ross and Cromarty, all of Caithness, Nairnshire and Sutherland, and small parts of Argyll and Moray.
The Northern Lighthouse Board , established by an act of Parliament in
1786, manages the major lighthouses of Scotland and the Isle of Man. For
five generations, engineers of the Stevenson family created for the Board
a network of elegant and durable lighthouses famous around the world.
Most of these lighthouses remain in service today.
The Scots word loch is used both for lakes and for inlets of the sea; a firth is a larger bay or strait, kyle is a strait or channel, and a mull is a rounded headland. Travelers in the Highlands, especially
the western part, will find Scottish Gaelic in frequent use. The Scottish
Gaelic phrase for a lighthouse is taigh
solais; eilean is
an island, sgeir is a skerry or rock, kyle is a strait, and rubha or
àird is a cape or promontory.
ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS
World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from Volume
A of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA numbers
are from Publication 114.
- General Sources
Northern Lighthouse Board - Lighthouse Library
- The Board's web site includes information and photos for many of the
lighthouses.
- Michael's Comprehensive List of Scottish Lights
- Data and photos posted by Michael Spencer.
- Lighthouse Archives
- Lighthouse information from LighthouseAccommondations.uk.
- Online List
of Lights - Scotland
- Photos by various photographers posted by Alexander Trabas.
- Lighthouses in Highland Council Area
- Photos available from Wikimedia; many of these photos were first posted on Geograph.org.uk.
- World of Lighthouses - Scotland
- Photos by various photographers available from Lightphotos.net.
- United Kingdom Lighthouses
- Aerial photos posted by Marinas.com.
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- Britische
Leuchttürme auf historischen Postkarten
- Historic postcard images posted by Klaus Huelse.
- The Stevensons
- The history of Scotland's remarkable family of lighthouse engineers.
- GPSNauticalCharts
- Navigational chart information for northern Scotland.
- Navionics Charts
- Navigation chart for Scotland.
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Rua Reidh Light, Gairloch, June 2022
Google Maps photo by Andrea Hielscher

Cape Wrath Light, Durness, May 2023
Instagram photo by Stefan Loose
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