Phone +44 1856 872856 | ||
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Address Dennis Head, North Ronaldsay KW17 2BG, United Kingdom Similar Balfour Castle, Knap of Howar, Churchill Barriers, The Orkney Museum, Earl's Palace - Kirkwall | ||
Dennis Head Old Beacon is a ruined lighthouse on the island of North Ronaldsay, Orkney, Scotland. It featured on the 2006 BBC television series Restoration Village finishing in third place. The beacon and keepers' houses are protected as category A listed buildings.
The 70-foot (21 m) tower was completed in 1789 under the supervision of Thomas Smith assisted by his stepson Robert Stevenson. It was to be the first of many island lighthouses for Smith (he had previously worked on the lights at Kinnaird Head and Mull of Kintyre). Its lighting system, although advanced for its time, consisting of a cluster of oil-burning lamps and reflectors was not very effective, often being mistaken for the mast-head of another ship by mariners and was removed in 1809. A new lighthouse was built in 1854.