A tale of two lighthouses

The head of the Clyde Estuary is marked by two lighthouses.  The more famous one is just south of Gourock, at Cloch Point.

This is the Cloch lighthouse, taken from the Dunoon to Gourock ferry (which takes a much closer course to the eastern shore than on the outward journey.)  The Cloch was built in 1797, designed by Thomas Smith and his son-in-law Robert Stevenson, who became one of the world's greatest lighthouse designers - the Bell Rock is probably his most famous design. Thomas Smith, however, was the first lighthouse designer in the family - he was the first engineer of the Northern Lighthouse Trust, having made his name designing innovative reflectors for the lighting of the New Town in Edinburgh.  Most of the work on the Cloch was done by Thomas Smith.
The light is opposite the Gantocks, a particularly nasty rocky ledge just off Dunoon, and was originally intended to warn ships off them.  Perhaps the Cloch was best known for the foghorn, which was compared to the sound of a cow in acute distress!  It's now a private house, and the light in the tower has been replaced by one on a pole.  The light is fully automated.
During both World Wars there was a coastal battery located here, and the terracing for the guns became the starting point for the caravan park which can be seen behind the lighthouse. The Inner Clyde was protected by an anti submarine boom which ran from the Cloch to Dunoon, coming ashore just below the statue of Highland Mary
The Gantocks now have their own light - properly just a beacon, which dates in its current form from 1898.

The Gantocks are completely submerged at high tide.

Highland Mary

The statue of Mary Campbell (better known as "Burns' Highland Mary") stands overlooking the harbour of Dunoon.  She's looking down the Clyde, either towards Ayrshire or along the route that the ship would take to the West Indies.  The best known version of the story is that she was Burns'one true love, with whom he intended to emigrate to the West Indies, but who died of typhus before they could arrange a passage. There are other versions, which tell a story which is less to Burns' credit.
Whatever the truth of the matter, the story inspired a fine statue.  Mary Campbell was indeed born in Dunoon, but appears to have moved with her parents early on in her life, so the location is a little fanciful.

The detailing of the bronze work, down to the braiding and knots on the shawl, is quite remarkable, especially considering the exposed location and the date of 1896 for its creation by David Watson Stevenson, who also did much work for the Wallace Monument. The blue bar is part of the ferry terminal, and in the background, on the far side of the Clyde estuary, is the Cloch lighthouse. More about the Cloch later.

"Lights will guide you home..."

St Mary's lighthouse is one of the major landmarks of the Northumbrian coast.

It is located just to the north of Whitley Bay, reached by a causeway that is flooded at high tide - you can just see the start of the causeway in the picture.  The history of the light goes back many centuries before the current building (which is no longer maintained by Trinity House.)  The original light was maintained by monks.  It's not known when they first settled the island, but the first extant records go back to 1090, when Tynemouth Priory was reconstituted by the Norman Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, as a cell of the Abbey of St Alban's. Shortly after that a chapel dedicated to St Helen was built on the site, and the monks kept a candle burning to warn ships of the dangers.  This became known as a "St Mary's Light", and in its turn this gave its name to the bay and the island.
The current building dates from 1898, and was intended to replace the Tynemouth lighthouse, which had been in service since 1664, and was located within Tynemouth Castle.  It was required partly because the light from the Tynemouth light was often obscured by smoke, but more urgently because the War Office wished to improve the defences of the Tyne Estuary: this was after all at the start of the naval rivalry between Britain and Germany which was one of the causes of the Great War.
The current Tynemouth lighthouse sits at the end of the northern jetty that protects the entrance to the Tyne: the earlier one was on the headland above the defences in the background.

On one of his visits to the North of England JMW Turner made sketches of the old castle with the lighthouse on the headland, which later became both a painting (in Blackburn Art Gallery) and was copied as an.engraving: as you can see the priory ruins haven't changed much since his time.

Strathy Point

About half way along the north coast is Strathy Point. It's not quite the most northerly point of the mainland, but it does lie at the end of a peninsula, and you need to walk to reach it - the road is just for access to the lighthouse and the farmer whose sheep graze the fields.  The car park is at Totegan Farm, and the walk is a simple (mostly downhill) stroll along the tarmac road.

The lighthouse, like the vast majority nowadays, is automated, although the outbuildings are still inhabited.  It's not one of the more picturesque lighthouses, as it sits on a rise and doesn't really need to be any taller than it actually is. It's a modern lighthouse, dating from 1958, and was the first one to be built as an all electric station. It filled in the last dark gap on the north coast, and the light can be seen for 26 miles.  There had been a temporary light there during the Second World War, and eventually it was concluded that it was really necessary.
But the lighthouse isn't the main reason for the walk.
If you go across the moor to the left of the picture, to this side of the lighthouse, you come to a small cliff with a view of a small sea arch.

We were lucky: the tide was just at the best height to appreciate it, and there was a small sea running, which really helped pick the arch out from among the dark rocks.  The mass of rock in the foreground is geologically very interesting.  There's a very old gneiss outcrop here among the mainly sedimentary rocks, possibly over 3,000 million years old - although the geologists aren't totally sure!