Point Lynas Lighthouse

This unusual and distinctive lighthouse was designed by Jesse Hartley, engineer to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board from 1824 to 1860, but with additions by G Lyster some twenty years later. It is a castellated building comprising a two-storey dwelling surmounted by a square tower 11 m high. The semicircular lantern is located at the base. The present lantern is 4.6 m in diameter and dates from about 1874. The lantern has a cast-iron lower wall and rectangular glazing bars take the height to 3.7 m. The lantern is topped by a plain conical roof with a ball finial. The square tower above has a corbelled oriel window of the pilot's look-out.

The unusual arrangement of having the lantern at ground level with the look-out and telegraph room above is similar to the Great Orme Lighthouse, also built by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. The telegraph station was established in 1879, and two new cottages were erected to accommodate extra staff. Point Lynas has now been taken over by Trinity House. A Chance Brothers occulting optic was fitted in the light room in 1878. This is 1.4 m in diameter and displays a light through 206 degrees. The fixed part of the optic consists of three sections, the central unit on the focal plane has a 0.25 m deep curved lens with bands of six prisms above and below it. The bottom unit is made up of six…