Carraigh Fhada lighthouse
FIRST-TIME visitors to Islay sailing into the ferry terminal at Port Ellen cannot fail to be impressed by the square-shaped lighthouse which stands on Carraig Fhada overlooking Kilnaughton Bay.
It was commissioned and built in 1832 by Walter Frederick Campbell, the island’s last Campbell laird, in memory of his first wife, Lady Eleanor, after whom the village of Port Ellen is named.
Lady Eleanor’s death at the age of 36 came as a heavy blow to her husband, who greatly supported and cared for her during bouts of mental illness.
The lighthouse construction was carried out by David Hamilton, a leading architect in the west of Scotland for more than half a century until his death in 1843. Hamilton also designed and built the marble dual burial chambers within the Bowmore Round Church and one of these became the last resting place of Lady Eleanor.
Lady Eleanor, nee Charteris, was a daughter of the 8th Earl of Wemyss and, in honour of his father-in-law, Walter Frederik renamed the Rhinns village of Bun Othan as Wemysshaven. It was later changed to the less burdensome Port Wemyss.
The island laird planned to be buried alongside his first wife in the Bowmore church but changing family fortunes saw him spending his final years on the continent. He died in France in 1855 and is buried at Avranches in Normandy.
The Carraig Fhada lighthouse passed into the control of the Northern Lighthouse Board in 1924 and a number of improvements were carried out. Above the main entrance is a plaque which extols the virtues of Lady Eleanor in what could now be best described as distinctly over-pious prose.