Lighthouse
The lighthouse marks the western entrance to the Menai Strait.
The tower is tapered in a way characteristic of Anglesey windmills, it is 10.7 m (35 ft) high) and 5.5 m (18 ft) in diameter. It may have been constructed by an Anglesey stone mason, and it is possible that the tower itself was originally used as a windmill.
The lantern and fittings cost £250 7s 6d, including the adaptation of an ‘earlier tower’. The north-east door is flanked by small windows, and the two floors above also have small windows, but the top does not. The conical roof is slated and has a flag pole. The present lantern window is about 2m (6 ft 6ins) by 0.61 m (2 ft). The optic, silver plated reflector and Fresnel lens were used into the 1970s and are dated 1861. The lantern was originally lit by six Argand lamps with reflectors.
A smaller, conical tower, with a domed top, can be found to the north-east, and may be an earlier structure. The walls are 2.03m (6 ft 8ins) in radius and 0.91 m (3 ft) thick with a door to the north-west and shows signs of cracking to the rubble-filled walls on the west.
Both towers do not show on the chart of Lewis Morris, of 1800, but do appear on the Ordnance Survey 1818-1823 2 inches/mile map and both probably originated as unlit markers.
The cottages nearby have been used as craft workshops, and the local community here once serviced pilot-boats and life boats.
Read more about this topic: Ynys Llanddwyn
Famous quotes containing the word lighthouse:
“This lighthouse was the cynosure of all eyes.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is the cry of a thousand sentinels, the echo from a thousand labyrinths; it is the lighthouse which cannot be hidden.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)