Welsh Journals

This handsome cast-iron lighthouse marking the south side of the channel to Llanelli Harbour was erected in 1865, replacing an earlier piled structure established in 1854, of which there are no remains. The 44 feet high tower stands just above low water mark and is the only wave-swept cast-iron tower of such a size in Britain. At high tide it stands in over 20 feet of water. Rising from a circular base about 24 feet in diameter the tower sweeps up in a graceful curve to a diameter of 1 feet 6 inches at lantern level about 36 feet above the pitched stone apron around its base. It is constructed of seven rings or courses of heavy cast-iron plates bolted together by means of external flanges. These plates are 4 feet high and about 4 feet wide near the base. As the diameter decreases upwards care has been taken to reduce the width of the plates in order to stagger all vertical joints. The lowest three horizontal joints have been strapped with massive wrought iron ties, and many of the lower panels have been individually strapped to the flanges. The interior is now inaccessible but it seems likely that the lower half is filled up with stone. From the seventh course ten sturdy cast-iron brackets with roundel-decorated spandrels carry the main balcony which in order to lessen resistance had a slatted wooden floor. The balcony parapet or balustrade is perhaps the most attractive of any lighthouse south of Scotland, and consists of delicate iron balusters linked at the top with trefoils and carried on strong bellied iron beams 6 feet 6 inches long. Access to the structure was by means of an external ladder on the east side, which has now been removed. This led to the balcony from which a door led into the lantern room, and from this a ladder gave access to the store room which also served as a somewhat cramped 'living' room. Both rooms were lit by two lunettes on the south west and north west, at the lower level these are set in the centre of the panels, but the upper ones are formed in the vertical joints. As the eighth course forming the murette carrying the lantern is over six feet high it was necessary to provide a second smaller upper balcony for cleaning the outside of the lantern. The lantern is formed of three rows of twenty rectangular panes; as the slender astragals are intact it seems reasonable to suppose that like the attractive ogee-domed top they are of non-ferrous metal. A few sheets of copper survive on the dome and the pretty finial seems complete. There is no visible evidence of any flue from a heating stove which might have made the cramped quarters comfortable, and it seems likely that the station could not have been residential and may have been operated on a system of tidal or daily watches from the main- land. The lighthouse was in use in 1914, but discontinued by 1933. Cast-iron was first used in Britain for the shore lighthouses at Mary- port, Cumberland and the Royal Terrace Pier at Gravesend in 1834 and a well known pier tower still stands at Sunderland where it was erected in 1856. The first cast-iron rock-lighthouse was designed by George Halpin (Snr.) and erected on the Fastnet Rock in 1854, but this was not a success and after being cracked was eventually replaced by the present fine stone tower. In the middle of the century the engineer Alexander Gordon was a