Undiscovered Scotland

 

"For the Safety of All: A Story of Scotland's Lighthouses" by Donald S Murray is a beautifully written and wonderfully illustrated large format book about lighthouses and, mainly though not exclusively, about those around the coasts of Scotland.

The book is published in partnership between Historic Environment Scotland and the Northern Lighthouse Board and in conjunction with designation work to update listed building records for lighthouses and associated structures. In his introduction the author says: "And so this book is not principally a work of history nor a detailed scientific account of how lighthouses operate or were built. In part, it is a reminder of those members of the Stevenson family who did so much to ensure the construction of these towers on islands, peninsulas and the coastline's edge... But mainly this book is a love-letter to lighthouses, a paean of praise to their fidelity and continual presence in my life. Let them shine."

"For the Safety of All" illuminates its subject through individual chapters that each look at a different aspect of lighthouses. We start with "The Absence of Illumination", which takes as its subject the earliest lighthouses, both in Scotland and far beyond these shores. The author then moves on to look in more detail at the Kinnaird Head Lighthouse and the associated Museum of Scottish Lighthouses; at the building of the revolutionary Eddystone lighthouse in the English Channel; and at the Bell Rock lighthouse off the Angus coast. We then move on to a series of thematic chapters: looking at life and death in Scotland's lighthouses; at the lighthouse in times of war; at dramatic tales from Scotland's lighthouses; and at the lighthouse in art, music and literature. Concluding chapters look at innovation and tradition in Scotland's lighthouses; and their role as guardians of the natural world. The author's introduction and conclusion are both fascinating and the book concludes with an appendix listing designated lighthouses and a well-selected bibliography.

It is easier to say what this book is not than what it is, and the author's description quoted above and our summary that follows is perhaps the closest we can come to saying what really does lie between the covers. But then there have been plenty of books written in the past about the history of lighthouses, either collectively or individually, and plenty about their building, their technology and their operation. We've read quite a few of them and it's hard to remember one that is so lyrical or so evocative. We might have some difficulty saying exactly what this book is: we have no difficulty at all saying that we thoroughly enjoyed reading it.