BBC The Lighthouse Stevensons 2011

Fascinating programme on the Stevenson family of engineers who built most of the lighthouses around scotland and many more throughout the world

[@begbieyabass]

My Dad was a lighthouse keeper on the Bass Rock Girdle Ness, and a stint on the Bell. When I was born I was 3 weeks old because he was stuck on the Bass Rock due to the weather as the yr was 62 and was the start of the worst winter In Decades.

[@CaymanIslandsCatWalks]

He saw you when you were three weeks old. I think you mean

[@tundrawomansays694]

@@CaymanIslandsCatWalksI’m sure that was the poster’s intent. Often we idealize or romanticize these kinds of jobs but like all employment there’s always a down side.

[@batmscot6149]

The bauble on a sailors hat and still worn today though few would know 🤔 it does have a very important function , to stop you denting your head when going through low entrances and ceilings. Hit the bauble duck the heed .

[@erlingleask1247]

My late father served at many of the lights featured in this programme in his 40+ year career with the N.L.B. His last posting being Sumburgh Head,Shetland. Magnus John LEASK.

[@seankayll9017]

The music in this documentary is beautiful.

[@davids6533]

Automation has it's place, but it has killed many a dreams. There's a forestry tower within shouting distance from my childhood and present home that I wanted to work in, but over-population, automation, etc., has killed that dream also. I'm retired from a very different job now and those dreams have gone un-fulfilled. This was a very interesting video. Thank you very much for posting it. : )

[@able880]

I knew a guy that worked in a fire tower for 35 yrs -

[@tundrawomansays694]

@@able880In the US, check with the National Park Service for employment. There’s still places that are isolated and employ people, not automation. Please don’t give up your dreams-try to think outside the box, for example State Environmental Conservation organizations. Good luck and best wishes, follow your dreams until you’re sure you’ve reached an impenetrable wall-and learn how to scale that wall! They gotta hire people; why not you?

[@ljts7587]

As little boy I always had a fascination with light houses and wanted to be a lighthouse keeper. But that dream came to end when in my teens found out about then being automated. I d just love being so remote away from the rest of the world. Braving nature and over coming it whilst feeling save inside. I even find I listen to the storm things at night to help me sleep. Always dreaming about being away from it all on a that Little Rock. I’d would have given up everything to have done that job.

[@hayleyb1981]

would be lovely until the new largest storm in the uk ever and just crashes into the lighthouse and it collapses like the biggest storm in the uk ever at eddystone

[@ljts7587]

@@hayleyb1981 Indeed Winstanleys Tower the first with a long history until the great storm of 1703. A lot of work and a lot of men lost trying to conquer that rock. Them men building the various towers over the years, all them storms those men must have seen. Makes you wonder how they got anywhere without modern days tools. The whole lighthouse history is truly amazing because of those men that made it so.

[@johnwood551]

I’m like you , I always wanted that solitude too but found out it was all automated.

[@yvonnewilkinson9855]

New Zealand and I always wanted to be a lighthouse keeper. I love visiting lighthouses where ever we travel. Best wishes 😊😊

[@dougalmcdougal8682]

Try oil rigs

[@SAM-zt2uy]

Fascinating museum at Arbroath about the Bell Rock, the model really has to be seen to be apreciated.

[@MadMax-bq6pg]

I am in awe of the people who carved these structures into the geography. I’m fascinated by the history & engineering but this landlubber is thankful he never has to go anywhere near the lighthouses - I can whiteknuckle on the Manly ferry!

[@lisawiggins516]

Thank God for Mr. Smith and Mr. Stevenson!!! Their passion to save lives and live out their born purpose!!! And they did!!! God I know they did your purpose for the time You gave them!!! They made this world a better place to live!!! I Thank God for these men You brought forth!!!

[@lisawiggins516]

No disrespect for these life savers!!! I Thank God for them!!! No criticism, always measure people by their actions!!! Passionate!!!

[@lisawiggins516]

They saved countless lives!!! They were moved with compassion and given by God!!! The wisdom and knowledge to bring forth fruitation to bring forth what God called them to do!!! To make this a better world!!!

[@88njtrigg88]

@@lisawiggins516 Agreed, no Bloketts amongst them.

[@able880]

Many light house keepers were committed Godly men - they had to be good men, there was grate responsibility in maintaining that light at night - Many mastered what it was to meditate on the word of God day and night - It drove out of them the anxiety that rested on them -

[@nledaig]

A very good documentary. I recollect going out with Calum Macaulay to Bearnaraidh Barra Head in his boat taking engineers to the island in the late seventies.The engineers were automating the light. By 1980 that was done and the keepers had left. There is a keepers' cemetery on the island as well as a burial ground of the islanders who had all left long before the keepers finally did. I think, if my memory serves me, Calum and his sister Mor were children of a lighthouse keeper. It could have been mentioned perhaps that the variation in the frequency of light flashes makes it possible to identify the location of each light in the darkest of nights at sea.

[@ladygardener100]

Quite incredible, i have sailed by the Mull of Kintyre many a time, and it is awesome.

[@smaze1782]

I’ve become fascinated with lighthouses. Great documentary.

[@begbieyabass]

My Dad was a lighthouse keeper on the Bass Rock & Girdle Ness

[@Penguin24766]

My kind of living quarters - fishing grounds, low amount of neighbours and no one apart from scheduled resupply.

[@davidbratby5134]

A very good presentation of this subject. I fully concur with the thoughts of 2nd commentator above (ljts). When sleep won't come, place yourself on a lighthouse, but alone, without colleagues for absolute best effect.

[@DarkSyster]

The Bell Rock Lighthouse, built by Robert Stevenson, clearly owes much of its design to John Smeaton's Eddystone lighthouse built in 1759 and which Stevenson had visited in 1801.

[@barryrudge1576]

An enjoyable documentary that once again shows technology taking away jobs but in this case for the better for shipping and those who worked the lighthouses no doubt found less stressful careers.

[@johnwhitbread206]

It can never be underestimated how much the world owes this family, form lighthouses to steam engines, in war time and in peace.

[@scrivener68]

I think you mean "overestimated."

[@Aotearoa_Kiwi]

@@scrivener68 You're right. The family's contributions to the world cannot be _'overestimated'_ (or 'overstated'). Maybe John was trying to say, "You should never _'underestimate'_ how much the world owes this family...".

[@Rosco-P.Coldchain]

Eye 3 slices

[@sscfc1]

Excellent video about brilliant human engineering and skill.

[@buckodonnghaile4309]

I'm curious as to what the stonemasons earned for building that lighhouse miles out at sea. Scottish stonemasons built much of my town in Canada, brilliant work. Cheers

[@Jimmyboy1674]

I live in Port Glasgow and we have 2! The Cloch Lighthouse is a beautiful build!❤🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@captainhindsight8779]

Jesus, that Bella could talk a glass eye to sleep 🥱

[@davehollingworth5537]

Great stuff. Thank you

[@garrygreen4814]

What wonderful people

[@bigdmac33]

Marvellous documentary.

[@PeterChegwidden]

An enjoyable docco to follow reading the book.

[@garrygreen4814]

This videos a keeper for sure

[@rosieposie839]

That's my family. I come from this exact line of Stevensons.

[@davidstevenson4582]

Me too!

[@Aza912]

and me

[@fookdatchit4245]

Me too until I changed it by deed poll to fookdatchit

[@mroflynn7769]

What a lineage Rose, very good genes indeed. Very impressed.

[@humphrey4976]

Build me a lighthouse then rose

[@sreekanth588]

very nice one I got New knowledge of light haouse

[@richardrichard5409]

Many Comben's were lighthouse keepers too😎

[@samuelgarrod8327]

I've always wanted to be a lighthouse.

[@tundrawomansays694]

Maybe you can find someone to blow sunshine up your posterior ;-) Teasing you, my friend! Take care, best wishes.

[@jackharrison6771]

Other than the videos and other contributions of former Lighthouse Keepers like Peter Halil, I consider this to be one of the best Posts on the Internet about Lighthouses, ever. The only one that comes close, is the hour long Post about the Irish Lights Commission. Well produced and inspiring. THANK YOU.

[@weatheranddarkness]

Zepherus' history of the Eddystone is pretty good imo

[@jimrobcoyle]

@@weatheranddarkness That video brought me here. 😎

[@PibrochPonder]

Have you a link to the Irish one?

[@jackharrison6771]

@@PibrochPonder Am looking for it now

[@jackharrison6771]

@@PibrochPonder kzbin.info/www/bejne/nanagI1mh5Jlqbc

[@dicostigan1449]

I recommend the Bella Bathurst book as it's a great read. Well done, Bella!

[@paulbriggs3072]

In reality workers built those lighthouses, principally masons. I myself together with a few others built a traditional looking brick lighthouse only 24 feet high on a point of land on a 37-mile-long lake, one of 11 lakes in New York's Finger Lakes region. It was built in 1998 and automated from the start. We did this because we discovered a 1930's map showing a navigation light at that point which it cited as yellow. No one could remember one but we built it with a yellow light with a 3 second period.

[@fandangofandango2022]

Wonderful and Wonder Men and Women Families.

[@themis8925]

Thaanks. Doing my research of Scotland lighthouses.

[@htimsid]

I thoroughly recommend 'The Lighthouse Stevensons', the book by Bella Bathurst.

[@keratilwemophatlane8859]

I would like to hear how your research went, im doing research on South African light houses.

[@adriaanboogaard8571]

A fascinating and Favimating program. I think of these places and the people that used to do tha job when I listen to the Shipping forecast. When I here a location and It's followed by the word automatic it just doesn't sound good to my ears. I'm Dutch heratige borne in California 1968.my Dad was Bourne in the Netherlands 1919 . The North Sea is in my blood. I never felt at home in Utah and never will. 1991 I went back with Dad and walked into the Sea near Amsterdam. I felt true joy.

[@chrismccartney8668]

Great Video I know there is Light House on Thames on Trinity Wharf where Trinity House Tested new equipment. There is near me in Markhouse Road Walthamstow London E17 a Inland Lighthouse

[@CaymanIslandsCatWalks]

If no one reported it how did they know. That was a wives tale they told the recruits up until modern times

[@mroflynn7769]

Brilliant video , so well documented and scripted . Well done BBC

[@2lipToo]

Fascinating history, although this doc would have benefitted (or rather WE would have) from clear maps depicting the location of each site. Not everyone knows Gaelic pronunciation - heck even in one's own mother tongue pronunciations can be tough to garner from audio/visual presentations. It took me considerable time to locate the lighthouses mentioned here.

[@nickshipway8199]

15:17 Can you really argue that the Bell Rock lighthouse is proof that Scotland is "better" than England, and led the way in marine technology, when John Smeaton achieved pretty much the same thing off the Cornish coast more than fifty years earlier? The third Eddystone lighthouse was also built in extremely hostile conditions, on a rock in the sea, but pioneered the use of dovetailed stones and marble dowels to hold it together.

[@IanRegan-pz6qr]

Exactly. The lack of any mention of Smeaton is disgusting. He was responsible for the oak tree lighthouse shape, not Rennie. He also innovated dovetailing the blocks of stone.

[@nancysmith2295]

This was regarding the work of the Stevenson Family over several generations. It would be difficult to incorporate every detail into a reasonably timed video. I enjoyed your sharing this piece in the history of lighthouse building. Thank you.

[@Thepourdeuxchanson]

Shows what I know - I thought Trinity House took care of all lighthouses in the UK these days, not the NLB separately in Scotland.

[@SirMurrayRivers]

Any docos about Brunton who built the lighthouses of Japan?

[@SKF358]

Charts , radar, and abd satellite navigation are required to go there. What about the Vikings?

[@nancysmith2295]

I need to check my ancestry as I have a Thomas Smith from generations ago in relation to myself. I am looking forward to this search. I love stories. I lived near the Napa Valley. I've been to the Robert Louis Stevenson park. It's very calming. Like a lighthouse could be with the rhythm of the waves. We get so used to the background patterns we can forget they're there.

[@edysonypairunan2054]

Plase share the film Bellrock.. Thank you

[@Thepourdeuxchanson]

I remember seeing that. Marvelous, moving, and educational.

[@dougalmcdougal8682]

Highly recommend Bellas Book 👍

[@BigDog366]

I don't agree that we're better off having unmanned lights. The whole tradition set by these amazing men was more than just the lights they tended so loyally. They had courage and discipline that are sadly missing in the modern world. Perhaps if we'd not gotten rid of so many of these jobs for men we wouldn't be in the state we're in now. My great-grandfather was a lighthouse keeper, my grandfather was a naval officer, my father was a naval officer, and I'm currently writing a book based around a lighthouse. Only today, as part of my research, I discovered that the Captain of Dartmouth Naval College is now a woman. My father must literally be turning in his grave. Such a shame. Thank you for posting this.

[@nickstevenson92]

Wonder if im related somewhere along the line, should look it up really,,

[@davidwright8086]

240P? that's as good as it can get?

[@goognamgoognw6637]

This is a quality documentary on a great subject. But you get the feeling that life in the northern atlantic isles is extremely boring.

[@eng9040]

Have read books on lighthouse history, some BBC no body with no ability to construct a sentence "All this palaver" she sums up the BBC.

[@dukecraig2402]

Seriously? You write "no body" in the process of talking about how someone else can't construct a sentence? Wow.

[@eng9040]

Starting any reply in any converse with the word Seriously and ending that converse with Wow, just about sums some people intellect.

[@tetrahead72]

third tower on the Eddystone 1759

[@shotbychristo]

👍 👌

[@mauriceclark4870]

What. Happened to Flannen. Isles keepers. Who vanished. ?????

[@88njtrigg88]

No Bloketts back then.

[@chloeew4627]

Bell rock 😮😮😮😮 amazing. Thousands of ship wrecks around Africa 😂😂😂😂😂

[@chiva2507]

Masters of the trade.!! Only artisans,will understand the extreme situations,under horrific conditions.!!! Labour labour,and more labour.!!

[@Steve211Ucdhihifvshi]

Shame this is in such poor quality.

[@paulbonner9467]

Nice work on the username bluffer

[@CaymanIslandsCatWalks]

Skerry vore or whatever…. The locals stripped the materials 😂

[@Macolicious88]

Thank you so much for uploading. Being trapped in this increasingly ridiculous and retarded age we find ourselves in. This further goes to prove my (and many others’ point) I digress. Thank you for uploading. Nowadays they systematically remove a thing that doesn’t follow the so-called

[@dylanlastname6784]

Why’d you have to say it like that lmao. The modern day is not as bad as you may think

[@Macolicious88]

@@dylanlastname6784 lol

[@begbieyabass]

The families of keeper's on the east coast lived in Salveson which I'd near Moore house in Edinburgh. I can still remember the white painted houses

[@F4Insight-uq6nt]

Free Hydro Power from Real History.

[@robertwright4803]

Unfortunately smeaton built a very successful lighthouse of Plymouth and was the first in the world

[@cgsdesigns441]

28:55 I think this woman just stares into space and has no idea what she is even on about.

[@stuartronald9785]

Who narrated this?

[@stevieyt61]

think it was Denis Lawson

[@KingIjazMalik]

@@stevieyt61 Who is That?

[@PibrochPonder]

@@KingIjazMalik why don’t you google it.

[@nickturner2813]

That would be the person whose name appears first in the credits under the title "Narrator". Dope.

[@nickturner2813]

@@KingIjazMalik The narrator.

[@IanRegan-pz6qr]

Absolute travesty that John Smeaton doesn't even get a mention. He was the true off-shore lighthouse pioneer.

[@kevnwarriner8819]

There's other Documentaries on the Lighthouses off the Coast of Cornwall and around the British Isles, Wolf Rock, Eddystone and the Needles Lighthouses are included, then there's the American Lighthouses and which English and Scottish Lighthouse designs the early ones were based on, this Documentary just covered the Scottish Lighthouses that the Stevenson Family were involved in

[@nledaig]

This is about the Stevenson Family and their work for the Lighthouse Board responsible for the Scottish coast

[@johnallen7807]

From the days when the BBC produced fine programmes not woke rubbish!

[@simonolsen9995]

Yep. They don't make them like this anymore.

[@johnallen7807]

@@simonolsen9995 One of the reasons I cancelled my licence!

[@andymoss]

I agree. And I’m very confused; the BBC has for years been telling us that all these severe storms are the result of global warming/climate change/whatever it is called this week, so how did these storms come to be so long ago?

[@johnallen7807]

Not to mention the fact that 10000 years ago Newcastle was under 20m of ice but thousands of years before that it was a tropical rain forest!@@andymoss

[@steveforster9764]

Bella is a babe

[@simonolsen9995]

Yeah man. I was wondering if anyone else had noticed.

[@stevenginn5352]

Read the book about three years ago, and really enjoyed watching the video to see the towers in "the flesh".

[@birdshenanigans8506]

What a waste of time it was... who cares about bloody skoootland?

[@BabbittdaWabbitt]

Troll.

[@brandmotivo]

What the heck was the Scottish man saying? What's the point of talking when no-one can understand you..........