Photo with kind permission of Trinity House.


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POSITION 51° 24'.00 N 03° 33'.05 W
Location:  Near Llantwit Major - Glamorgan Wales (Dyfed)
No. on Admiralty list of lights:  4406
Officially established:  1832
Designer: James Walker - Builder: Joseph Nelson & his nephew George Burrell
Original structures: Two Ashlar stone towers - 103ft (305.7m) apart
Height of low light above mean high water: 122ft (37.26m)
Height of high light above mean high water: 176ft (53.75m)
First lit:  12th October 1832

Nash Lighthouse was designed by James Walker, the Consultant Engineer to Trinity House, and built by Joseph Nelson in 1832, to mark the sand banks off the point at the entrance to the Bristol Channel. The decision to build it followed a public outcry after the passenger steamer FROLIC was wrecked with heavy loss of life in 1830.

Two circular towers were built each with massive walls and a stone gallery. The eastern, or high lighthouse being 37 metres high and the western or low lighthouse 25 metres high. Placed 302 metres apart they provided leading lights to indicate safe passage past the sand banks. The high light was painted with black and white stripes and the low light was white. In those days both towers showed a fixed light which was either red or white depending on the direction from which a vessel approached. The red sector marked the Nash Sands.

The low light was abandoned early this century and the high light was modernised and painted white. In place of the fixed light a new first order catadioptric lens was installed which gives a white and red group flashing.

Nash is one of those lighthouses scattered around our coast that has no claim to fame. For over 160 years its light has done its job as a sign to mariners to keep them clear of danger, its sole distinction is the discovery in 1977 of the tuberous thistle (Cirsium Tuberosum), a rare plant, which was found growing around the lighthouse.



Nash Point