Princess Anne takes a shine to lighthouses

Published on Sunday 13 July 2008 22:13

PRINCESS Anne has stepped up her bid to see all 215 of Scotland's lighthouses, it was revealed yesterday.

The Princess Royal, who has been fascinated by lighthouses since she was a girl, made a secret trip to Arran on Wednesday to visit the Pladda and the Holy Island Inner and Outer lights.

And later this month she hopes to "bag" another couple off Skye aboard her newly commissioned vessel Pharos, on which she plans several more trips throughout the year.

Roger Lockwood, chief executive of the Northern Lighthouse Board, of which she is patron, said: "She must have visited more than 80 with us.

"It is not just about ticking off another light on the list. She also likes to see the places and conditions in which the technicians have to work.

"The princess has done all the major lights now and it will not be easy to do them all because there are many that are scattered all over the place. But it will be a remarkable feat if the princess ticks them all off."

It is believed her obsession began when she was five years old on a trip to Tiumpan Head in Lewis with the Queen.

This month's trip will be the third to Skye aboard Pharos, named after the seventh wonder of the world, the famed lighthouse of Alexandria.

Her hobby is so consuming that she also visits many lights secretly on private yachting jaunts with her husband, Vice-Admiral Tim Laurence.

The princess and her husband have even been mistaken for "a couple of chancers" on a lighthouse-bagging trip in 2005 by Oronsay islander Duncan McDougall.

But, as with many lighthouse enthusiasts, her love of the "signposts of the seas" is likely to be as mysterious as the towers themselves.

Ian Duff, 59, Scotland representative of the Association of Lighthouse Keepers, said: "If you ask anyone, they can't describe their fascination, but it seems to be infectious. I think it's the beauty of the lighthouse, and the isolation – they are all on cliff tops or on remote islands.

"There is a romantic side to it – on a lovely summer's morning when you're surrounded by seabirds singing and the sun is rising.

"But somewhere like Sules Skerrie in October when you can't stand up in the wind and the waves are breaking off the towers is quite different.

"There's also the history of them, the engineering, and the architecture."

The lighthouses the princess has visited include Flannan Isles in the Outer Hebrides where on Boxing Day 1900 three keepers mysteriously vanished.

She has also visited Inchkeith, on an uninhabited private island in the Forth owned by Scots entrepreneur Sir Tom Farmer.