Bell Rock Lighthouse

#CivilEngineering Technician, Jenny Gilbertson, talks to us about the Bell Rock Lighthouse which was built by Robert Stevenson. It was built the first of it's kind to be built in the sea, 11 miles from the coast. The self weight of the structure and the dovetail joints give the #lighthouse enough strength to withstand the force of the North Sea.

[@user-ef1zt6dn8e]

The photograph you have shown is of Robert Stephenson the famous railway and civil engineer . It also would be fair to point out that the first successful rock light house in the UK was the Eddystone Rock Light completed in October 1759. The design of Bell Rock was based on that of Eddystone, both in it's shape and the use of Dovetailed granite blocks. However it it must be said that the the building of Bell Rock was a much more difficult and ambitious project, and it's completion was due to the skill and determination of Robert Stephenson.

[@scottstensland]

Spectacular description of a supreme achievement ... Well done

[@40kgnorg33]

That was some highly skilled engineering let alone what they had to work with! Absolutely amazing! And it still stands strong today after years of abuse from the elements. Hats off to all involved!

[@peteacher52]

When I was 13 in 1960, we had an English language text book containing Southey's poem 'The Inchcape Rock'. Many decades later, recalling the poem, I entered the title on Google Earth which homed in on Bell Rock. Interesting. Further research told that the so-named rock is the highest point of the largely submerged Inchcape Reef which was the ongoing cause of so much grief. Col, NZ.

[@mauriceballard249]

Smeeton built the first succesfull light house on the Eddystone before the bell lighthouse to the first cone design the bell used . So there was a model for the bell to copy,

[@johnpickles349]

Well put together. What magnificent work those engineers did. Heroic.

[@nickloughrey9841]

Well done Jenny

[@richardnunez3474]

I didn't know who amazing this structure is. 💙

[@i-adonald1499]

A truly amazing achievement.

[@Cyrusmagi]

very interesting worth watching at slower speed. Having sailed past or round many of these marvellous designed structures in my small kingfisher 20 yacht i am very grateful for the sweat and manpower that built them. Many a time at night or in poor visability the light flashing through has restored my confidence , and self presavation.

[@railmediaproductions3677]

Thank you so much for sharing this video. It was a truely amazing achievement building the lighthouse on the Bell Rock.

[@trimbaker1893]

Thank you for such a pleasant and informative explanation. You are very easy to listen to. : ) George.

[@Shindai]

I feel bad for the bloke who puts out the first cone to start roadworks on the motorway, but crikey, the idea of being stranded out there in the open ocean now it's finished, let alone having to stay on the rock while they were building it.. gotta admire that, it must've been ruddy terrifying working on the lighthouse. There should be a plaque somewhere to shoutout the horse Bassey, who carried every one of the 2800 stones :)

[@judgeroybean6930]

Very informative and helpful

[@johnhewitt7284]

Smeatons tower on the Edfystone Reef over thirty years before Bell Rock.

[@thelongdrag9188]

Fifty years, I believe (1757) - and furthermore Smeaton was already using dovetailed granite blocks back then too. It was shorter then Bell, but it was built out on the reef, which is definitely in the sea. The only reason it was abandoned was due to the instability/fracturing of the underlying gneiss due to erosion, otherwise it would still be there today as well. In fact the flared base is still there after the main top section and light was moved to be re-erected on Plymouth Hoe.

[@jamestom2510]

wow, what a feat of engineering so long ago

[@mrcrazyjonpresents4312]

Somewhere round here there is a Hawker Hunter aeroplane that vanished not far off from here back in March of 1958

[@peteacher52]

Sorry - Google Earth does not do that any more, but it certainly did on the earlier version I had at the time

[@nbandpinportugal]

Were all the stones cut and shaped on the mainland ?

[@BorderTed]

Mistake at 0.33 as the photograph shown is of famed Railway Engineer Robert Stephenson, not of Lighthouse builder Robert Stevenson.

[@adamvowless6436]

How do we see inside it??

[@richcampoverde]

You dont

[@ianstewart2252]

Dived there many a time ..wreck of the "Argyle"

[@Pa-tk1dx]

Gosh the lighthouse is a true wonder! But I want to marry you!

[@andrewdishman335]

If global warming has risen sea levels as the so called experts have said then why is the lighthouse now indistinguishable from older photos of the lighthouse?

[@binder946]

👍

[@anyonebutme7880]

Yet more BRITISH engineering 🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@DarkSyster]

This clip has some definite errors. Stevenson was NOT the first to create this style of lighthouse, but he was the first in Scotland to build it. In 1801, Stevenson had visited the Eddystone Lighthouse designed by John Smeaton, the REAL FIRST lighthouse of this type to ever be built. The shape of the lighthouse and the idea of cutting the stone into dovetail joints to hold it together and the use of Marine Lime were all first used by Smeaton. Stevenson copied them. But then, all good engineers know to copy what they know works.

[@milolouis]

Marry me!

[@hellaroh6053]

Why is this an amazing feat of engineering? It’s just a normal lighthouse.

[@ianstewart2252]

It was the first of its kind ...of what YOU call a normal lighthouse ...this was the model N0 1

[@nickloughrey9841]

Perhaps you would be better of going back to school and learning some history and engineering than commenting on somthing you know nothing about !

[@RSR423]

@@ianstewart2252 No it wasn't. Maybe you mean the first of this kind in Scotland. Smeaton had already used this design of dovetailing the stone blocks together in the Eddystone Lighthouse, which was finished in 1759 at Plymouth. So NO it wasn't model No1 now, was it.

[@RSR423]

@@nickloughrey9841 Perhaps you had better go back to school, before you start dropping wise cracks. This wasn't the first of its kind at all, maybe the first of this kind in Scotland, that's all. There was a dovetail lighthouse, that Bell rock was copied from, on Eddystone Plymouth in 1759.

[@nickloughrey9841]

@@RSR423 In my 67 years i have probably forgotten more ...than you will know even if you live as long as me .

[@HappyBear376]

Ever noticed they always trot out some chick for these things?

[@johndunston5632]

Couldn't understand a word she said, and the music was to loud

[@megataurus7779]

That's because you are a "natural fuckin idiot"

[@simonlyons5681]

I had to abandon watching it due to the music while she is speaking :-(

[@peteacher52]

For christ's sake!! You can hardly hear it. I suppose you want the raucous discordant shit that overpowers so many KZbin videos that so many think cool.

[@i-adonald1499]

A truly amazing achievement.