Toward Point Lighthouse

Toward Point Lighthouse is on the southern extremity of the Cowal Peninsula, near the village of Toward and six miles south of Dunoon, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. There has been a lighthouse here since 1812.

Toward Point Lighthouse
Toward Point Lighthouse
LocationCowal Peninsula
Coordinates55°51′37″N 4°58′41″W
Year first lit1812
ConstructionWhite circular tower
Focal height21 metre 
Range22 nautical miles
CharacteristicFl. W 10sec
Heritagecategory B listed building 

Toward Point Lighthouse was completed in 1812. It was built by Robert Stevenson (1772–1850) for the Cumbrae Lighthouse Trust.[1] Two lighthouse keepers' houses were added in the later 1800s. A white building on the foreshore housed the foghorn mechanism, originally a steam engine and then diesel engines. The foghorn was taken out of operation in the 1990s.[2] The keeper's cottages were sold in 2012 and are now a private home.[3]

Toward Point marks the extreme south-westerly point of the Highland Boundary Fault as it crosses the Scottish mainland.[4] The Highland Boundary Fault does not run through Toward Point, but about one kilometre to the west it can be located on the Toward shore by the presence of Serpentinite and the sudden change from younger sedimentary rocks to much older metamorphic rocks, notably Psammite.

  • Toward Point lighthouse
  • Lighthouse and foghorn building

See also

Footnotes
  1. Ritchie, James Neil Graham; Harman, Mary (1996). Argyll and the Western Isles. Exploring Scotland's Heritage. Seven Hills Books. p. 72. ISBN 9780114952877.
  2. "Toward Lighthouse". Photographers Resource. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  3. Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of Scotland: Argyll and Bute". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  4. MacNair, Peter (29 November 2012). Argyllshire and Buteshire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-1107657526.
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