Coquet Island
Photo with kind permission of Trinity House.


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Position: 55° 20'.0 N  01° 32'.2 W
Location:   Approximately 1 mile off the Northumbrian town of Amble
No. On Admiralty List of Lights:  2780
Lighthouse Established:  1841
Tower Composition:  Square castellated stone
Height of Tower: 72 ft  (22 m)
Designer: 
James Walker
Resident Engineer: 
Nicholas Douglass
Focal Height of Light:  83 ft (25.25 m) above mean high water
First Lit:  September 1841
Light Characteristic: White and red
occulting light every 30 seconds
Visible Range on clear night: nominal 15 nautical miles
Automated: 1990
Corporation:
Trinity House
Monarch at time of construction:
Queen Victoria  (1837-1901)

History:
Coquet Island is a small low tract of green pasture land lying close inshore off the Northumberland coast. In 1841 Trinity House built a very substantial lighthouse on the south western shore at a cost of £3,268.

The lighthouse was built to the design of James Walker, the white square tower is of sandstone surrounded by a turreted parapet with walls in excess of one metre thick. The dwelling houses are also an integral part of the fortress-like structure where the keepers appointed to attend the light lived during their periods on duty.

The first keeper appointed to Coquet lighthouse was William Darling, elder brother of
Grace Darling. He was in fact the second of her brothers to become a keeper in the Trinity House Service. It has been said that it was probably a boat trip to see her brother at Coquet Island in the summer of 1842 that led to a chill which eventually proved fatal to her.

Coquet Lighthouse was converted to automatic operation in December, 1990 and is now monitored from the Trinity House Operations Control Centre at Harwich.