Steve Pellatt
Explore #66 20/07/2025: Guiding Light🎶
South Stack Lighthouse, Anglesey, Wales, UK
Well I’ll give you all a break from Rome (no guarantee I’ll return to that part of the hard drive given my habits though!).
As some of you will know I have retired recently after working for Hampshire County Council for over 43 years. I decided a couple of weeks before R-day that I’d take one of my photography breaks and booked 6 nights on Anglesey which is a totally new location to me. It was half a photography trip and half about putting a ‘full stop’ at the end of my full time work sentence.
The heatwave that struck most of the UK seemed to not be allowed entry to Anglesey so there were various periods of wet or textureless grey skies. I’d already been to South Stack to shoot the lighthouse a few days earlier which had been curtailed by a heavy dose of sea fog rolling in before sunset. I decided to return and looked for some different compositions from those I took a few days earlier. I worked my way down to near Elin’s tower as sunset approached as I thought there might be a bit of colour despite there only being low level cloud around.
This shot is about the best the colours got to. It’s a 5 shot bracketed image and with some trial and error I managed to get the lighthouse light showing. I’d hope those clouds would catch a bit more but alas not however I did feel it was worth going again especially as the conditions contrasted so much with a few days earlier (to be continued).
At the risk of giving some of you earworms the title of the image just came to me immediately via Mumford & Sons www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9jmjXDQ5MQ
South Stack Lighthouse was first envisaged in 1665 when a petition for a patent to erect the lighthouse was presented to Charles II. The patent was not granted and it was not until 9 February 1809 that the first light appeared to mark the rock. The lighthouse was designed by Trinity House surveyor Daniel Alexander and originally fitted with Argand oil lamps and reflectors. Around 1840 a railway was installed by means of which a lantern with a subsidiary light could be lowered down the cliff to sea level when fog obscured the main light.
On 25 October 1859 it is said that the most severe storm of the century occurred, known as the ‘Royal Charter’ gale; and on that and the following day over 200 vessels were either driven ashore or totally wrecked with the loss of 800 lives. The steamship Royal Charter was among these, sinking within yards of help with the loss of almost 500 passengers and crew.
In the mid 1870s the lantern and lighting apparatus was replaced by a new lantern. In 1909 an early form of incandescent light was installed and in 1927 this was replaced by a more modern form of incandescent mantle burner. The station was electrified in 1938. On 12 September 1984 the lighthouse was automated and the keepers withdrawn. The lighthouse is now monitored and controlled from Trinity House’s Planning Centre in Harwich, Essex. The tower is 28m in height putting the light 60m above mean high water level and is visible for 24 Nautical Miles.
Ref. www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses-and-lightvessels/south...
© All rights reserved to Steve Pellatt. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.
Explore #66 20/07/2025: Guiding Light🎶
South Stack Lighthouse, Anglesey, Wales, UK
Well I’ll give you all a break from Rome (no guarantee I’ll return to that part of the hard drive given my habits though!).
As some of you will know I have retired recently after working for Hampshire County Council for over 43 years. I decided a couple of weeks before R-day that I’d take one of my photography breaks and booked 6 nights on Anglesey which is a totally new location to me. It was half a photography trip and half about putting a ‘full stop’ at the end of my full time work sentence.
The heatwave that struck most of the UK seemed to not be allowed entry to Anglesey so there were various periods of wet or textureless grey skies. I’d already been to South Stack to shoot the lighthouse a few days earlier which had been curtailed by a heavy dose of sea fog rolling in before sunset. I decided to return and looked for some different compositions from those I took a few days earlier. I worked my way down to near Elin’s tower as sunset approached as I thought there might be a bit of colour despite there only being low level cloud around.
This shot is about the best the colours got to. It’s a 5 shot bracketed image and with some trial and error I managed to get the lighthouse light showing. I’d hope those clouds would catch a bit more but alas not however I did feel it was worth going again especially as the conditions contrasted so much with a few days earlier (to be continued).
At the risk of giving some of you earworms the title of the image just came to me immediately via Mumford & Sons www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9jmjXDQ5MQ
South Stack Lighthouse was first envisaged in 1665 when a petition for a patent to erect the lighthouse was presented to Charles II. The patent was not granted and it was not until 9 February 1809 that the first light appeared to mark the rock. The lighthouse was designed by Trinity House surveyor Daniel Alexander and originally fitted with Argand oil lamps and reflectors. Around 1840 a railway was installed by means of which a lantern with a subsidiary light could be lowered down the cliff to sea level when fog obscured the main light.
On 25 October 1859 it is said that the most severe storm of the century occurred, known as the ‘Royal Charter’ gale; and on that and the following day over 200 vessels were either driven ashore or totally wrecked with the loss of 800 lives. The steamship Royal Charter was among these, sinking within yards of help with the loss of almost 500 passengers and crew.
In the mid 1870s the lantern and lighting apparatus was replaced by a new lantern. In 1909 an early form of incandescent light was installed and in 1927 this was replaced by a more modern form of incandescent mantle burner. The station was electrified in 1938. On 12 September 1984 the lighthouse was automated and the keepers withdrawn. The lighthouse is now monitored and controlled from Trinity House’s Planning Centre in Harwich, Essex. The tower is 28m in height putting the light 60m above mean high water level and is visible for 24 Nautical Miles.
Ref. www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses-and-lightvessels/south...
© All rights reserved to Steve Pellatt. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.