North Ronaldsay, Versa Breck, North Ronaldsay Lighthouse Cross and Burness, Scotland

Listed Building Data

North Ronaldsay, Versa Breck, North Ronaldsay Lighthouse has been designated a scheduled monument in Scotland with the following information. Please note that not all available data may be shown here, minor errors and/or formatting may have occurred during transcription, and some information may have become outdated since listing.

Historic Scotland ID: 337393 (entity ID)
Building ID: 5892
Canmore ID: 3645
Category: B
Name: North Ronaldsay, Versa Breck, North Ronaldsay Lighthouse, Including Keepers' Houses, Boundary Walls and Foghorn
Parish: Cross and Burness
County: Orkney Islands
Easting: 378439
Northing: 1055996
Date Listed: 8 December 1971
Source: Historic Environment Scotland Portal: LB5892 official listing
More Info: Canmore: 3645 map, documents, images, activities, notes, etc.

Listed Building Description

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

Alan Stevenson, 1852. 8-stage with lantern, circular-plan tapered tower standing to E of single storey, 8-bay rectangular-plan symmetrical keepers' accommodation block. Tower: brick, painted in thick, alternating, horizontal stripes with droved, polished and painted ashlar and concrete dressings; channelled ashlar at 8th stage. Base course; band course between 7th and 8th stages; thick band course below cast-iron railings around lantern balcony, supported by pointed, machiolations. Long and short margins to windows. Keepers' accommodation: harled with painted ashlar dressings. Base course; blocking course. Large rectangular-plan garden to rear (W) of keepers' block; semicircular-plan foghorn to E of lighthouse. TOWER: openings to W side. Massive projecting, tapered door surround with string course below cavetto cornice and shallow pediment at 1st stage; deep-set part-glazed, 2-leaf, timber panelled doors. Window at each stage above, (pointed-arched window at 8th stage). Triangular-pane glass to cylindrical lantern above; hemispherical dome above. INTERIOR: spiral stone staircase with timber handrail; timber and iron stair with brass handrail to lamp-room; original winding and lamp-revolving gear to centre of lamp-room; ventilators to lamp-room with decorative brass covers depicting heads of wind gods; decorative lattice walkway around lantern; triangular pane apexes bearing lion masks; riveted dome ceiling with central ventilator; stout horizontally boarded door with brass furniture to external balcony. KEEPERS' HOUSES: E (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: bays grouped 2-1-2-1-2. Window in bays to centre. Deep-set, 2-leaf boarded door with small-pane fanlight in bays to left and right flanking. Window in penultimate and outer bays to left and right. 12-pane timber sash and case windows. Platform roof; tall, tapered ashlar stacks, grouped 2-2, with string course below cavetto cornice; tall cans; cast-iron rainwater goods. INTERIOR: not seen, 1998. BOUNDARY WALLS: random rubble wall with rubble cope enclosing rectangular-plan garden to W of accommodation block. FOG HORN: tapered, short semicircular-plan block housing 2 foghorns, raised on steel gantries. Harled concrete. Square-plan operations hut immediately to W; boarded door to S.

Listed Building Statement of Special Interest

Text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

At 42.3 metres, the North Ronaldsay is Britain's tallest land-based lighthouse. William Kinghorn of Leith tendered to build it for ?681 8s 7d. Due to the lack of raw materials available on North Ronaldsay, and the difficulties involved in transporting them, the Lighthouse Board chose to build the tower from brick, confining the use of stone to the base and the arched corbels of the external gallery. This gallery, along with the brass Grecian heads which decorate the lamproom and the massive, Egyptian-inspired tower entrance, are features which can be found at Hoy High on Graemsay (see separate list description), also designed by Alan Stevenson.

Listed Building References

Appears on 1st edition OS map (1882); NMRS Photographic Records, O/969/5, (1966); B Wilson, THE LIGHTHOUSES OF ORKNEY, (booklet accompanying the Summer Exhibition, Stromness Museum), (1975) p 12; J Hume, THE INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF SCOTLAND, VOL II, (1977) p 249; 3RD S A (1983), p 90; K Allardyce and E M Hood, AT SCOTLAND'S EDGE (1986), p 157; L Burgher, ORKNEY, AN ILLUSTRATED ARCHITECTURAL GUIDE (1991), p 100; J Gifford, HIGHLAND AND ISLANDS (1992), p 347; A Ritchie, ORKNEY (1996) p 52; North Ronaldsay Community Council, THE ISLAND OF NO DC 8917 - 8931 inclusive.