The North Ronaldsay Trust will be able to advance their plans to develop a cafe, shop and visitor centre at The Lighthouse due to funding from Crown Estate Scotland.
The North Ronaldsay Trust has been awarded a grant of £20,000 to repurpose the engine room in the Lighthouse. The Community Capacity Grants are part of Crown Estate Scotland’s Sustainable Communities Fund which has, since its launch in 2020, distributed more than £1.7m to a wide range of innovative projects across the country.
Penny Coles, Head of Partnerships with Crown Estate Scotland, said:
“This latest round of funding awards – the fifth since the Sustainable Communities Fund was launched – features projects which all demonstrate an ambition to make a tangible and lasting improvement to local people and visitors alike.
“We at Crown Estate Scotland are excited to be supporting the delivery of such important and positive projects which will help bring about improvements to the lives and economies of communities across Scotland.”
The latest successful Community Capacity projects, delivered in partnership with Foundation Scotland, are:
- Friends of Tarlair Community Group (Aberdeenshire) – £43.9k. To support design drawings for final stage of restoration of a landmark historic coastal Art Deco lido and outdoor swimming pool.
- Tiree Community Development Trust (Argyll and Bute) – £23k. Towards a feasibility study for redevelopment of local harbour and creation of a community storage facility.
- Arrochar & Tarbert Community Development Trust (Argyll and Bute) – £48.5k. Help to provide public toilets in a popular coastal tourist spot.
- Scalpay Community Association (Eilean Siar) – £38.5k. Redevelopment of a heritage centre in this coastal community, which will utilise renewable energy sources and provide improved tourist facilities.
- Torridon District Community Association (Highland) – £20k. Support for economic development in the form of a new campsite for this coastal area.
- Coigach Community Development Company (Highland) – £42.5k. Towards RIBA Stage 4 costs (architectural drawings, building warrants etc) for 10 community-owned affordable homes for this coastal community.
- Cumbrae Community Development Company (North Ayrshire Council) – £29.5k. To enable development of a business plan and procurement support for a community bid to operate Millport Marina.
- North Ronaldsay Trust (Orkney) – £20k. Support for the repurposing of a lighthouse engine room as a community facility, with plans for a café, gift shop, and visitor centre, bolstering the local economy.
- Resonate: Creating Communities (Dumfries and Galloway) – £31k. Transformation of a former police station in the coastal town of Kirkcudbright to become a mental health support centre for autistic young people.
Foundation Scotland is an independent Scottish charity (SC022910), one of 47 community foundations in the UK and part of a global network of over 1800 foundations worldwide. For more information about Foundation Scotland, please visit www.foundationscotland.org.uk.
The History of North Ronaldsay Lighthouses (reference the Northern Lighthouse Board)
Thomas Smith, an Edinburgh lampmaker was the engineer for the first lighthouse with Ezekiel Walker, an English lighthouse designer, to advise in the initial stages. Smith was assisted by his step-son Robert Stevenson, founder of a famous family of lighthouse engineers, and grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Smith chose to build the first North Ronaldsay tower at Kirk Jaing, the most easterly point of Dennis Head. North Ronaldsay was first lit on 10 October 1789. It was to use the most advanced lighting system of its time.
In 1806, a lighthouse was built at Start Point, Sanday, and North Ronaldsay, then considered redundant, was extinguished in 1809, its lantern replaced by a great wall of masonry removed from Start Point in 1806. It still survives as a great unlit beacon.
Alan Stevenson wrote his “Report on the Offers for North Ronaldsay Lighthouse January 8, 1852”. On Stevenson’s recommendation, the Commissioners accepted the lowest offer of £6,181-8-7 for a brick tower from William Kinghorn, a “respectable builder” of Leith. North Ronaldsay possessed what is still the highest land based lighthouse in the British Isles. Soaring to a height of 139ft of gleaming red brick. In 1889, the red brick tower was painted with two white bands to distinguish it as a day mark.
North Ronaldsay Lighthouse was automated on 30 March 1998.
