Isle of Whithorn Tower
The Isle's most familiar landmark is the square, white tower that has been a navigational aid for hundreds of years.
From here there are views of the Kirkcudbright coast, the whole of the northern range of the English Lake District mountains, and to the south the rounded, mountainous form of the Isle of Man.
During the Second World War it was the site of a tracking station for anti-aircraft gunnery practice. The set up was that an aircraft flew up and down in front of the guns, which would try to bring it down. Initially, radio-controlled 'Queen Bee' aircraft were used, and the flat concrete foundation by the white tower on the cairn, now the location of the Solway Harvester memorial stone, was laid down for one of the control huts. The memorial stone to the Solway Harvester is in the form of an anchor set in a granite block.
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Famous quotes containing the words isle and/or tower:
“It is so rare to meet with a man outdoors who cherishes a worthy thought in his mind, which is independent of the labor of his hands. Behind every man’s busy-ness there should be a level of undisturbed serenity and industry, as within the reef encircling a coral isle there is always an expanse of still water, where the depositions are going on which will finally raise it above the surface.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“With the noise of the mourning of the Swattish nation!
Fallen is at length
Its tower of strength;
Its sun is dimmed ere it had nooned;
Dead lies the great Ahkoond,
The great Ahkoond of Swat
Is not!”
—George Thomas Lanigan (1845–1886)