Explore the human stories behind Scotland's lighthouses.

Explore the human stories behind Scotland's lighthouses.

The Stevenson family created a network of lifesaving lights around the coast, each with its own unique flash pattern.

For generations, this infrastructure relied on lighthouse keepers, ships' crews, and engineers who kept the lights lit. Keepers and their families formed an extended community centred around Scotland's coastline - a community that dispersed after the last lighthouse was automated in 1998.

More than a decade after automation, the Northern Lighthouse Board Heritage Trust's Oral History Project set out to record the stories of those who experienced the transition from manned to automatic lights.

In this talk, project fieldworker and editor of the book ‘Lighthouse Lives’, Erin Farley, will share reflections and stories from the project, revealing some of the lives behind the lights.

The event will be followed by an audience Q&A.

About the speaker

Erin Farley is the Oral History Project fieldworker for the Northern Lighthouse Board Heritage Trust and editor of the book ‘Lighthouse Lives’.

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