Lighting up the approach to the Scilly's from the North
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The lighthouse on Round Island which is 2.5 miles north of St. Mary's, was built in 1887, and was designed by William Tregarthen Douglass for Trinity House.
Round Island, the most northerly outpost of The Isles of Scilly is a 130 foot mass of granite, the top forming a platform on which Trinity House built a lighthouse and dwellings under conditions of extreme difficulty. The sheer rock face made the unloading of building materials almost impossible. The building is a circular tapering three-stage tower with square-headed windows, surmounted by a cast iron cupola with a cast iron parapet, lattice windows, and a curved conical roof.
In 1912 the lighthouse was provided with a fog siren, sounded through a pair of large red-painted Rayleigh Trumpets mounted on the roof of a fog horn house, adjacent to the lighthouse itself on the north side. It sounded four blasts every two minutes. The engine house was upgraded and equipped with a pair of 22 HP Hornsby oil engines which drove the compressor. These remained in service until the late 1960's, when they were replaced with diesel engines.
The height of the tower is only 46 feet up to the gallery lantern but it has a most commanding position. Originally it was provided with an aerial hoist to bring supplies up from the boat but it was removed during the 1970's. Today the only access, apart from by helicopter, is by a flight of steps out into the solid rock.
The enormous hyperradial optic used was fitted to only two other lighthouses at the beginning of the 20th century. The ten wick burner which produced 2000 candlepower and designed by Sir James Douglass was replaced in 1967 with more modern apparatus. This in turn was replaced during the automation of the lighthouse in 1987 when the present equipment was installed.
In 2002 the lighthouse was converted to solar power, with photovoltaic cells replacing the erstwhile constantly running diesel alternator sets as the power source for the light and fog signal. The lamp was upgraded to an LED in 2025. The lighthouse continues to display one white flash every ten seconds.
Round Island Lighthouse is monitored and controlled from the Trinity House Operational Control Centre in Harwich.
Cornish Lighthouses Cornwall's Shipwrecks The Isles of Scilly The Uninhabited Islands