hurrengoa
sea estruktures -bell rock-    Bell Rock lighthouse is on a reef called Inchcape in the middle of the North Sea, 18 kilometres from Arbroath in Scotland. With special tides, Inchcape Reef stands out 1.5 metres from the sea. But it is usually covered by the sea. Just talking about a lonely lighthouse in the black, violent North Sea brings the characters from the book La pel freda (arrua hotz) to mind. You imagine Batis Caffo, Aneris and the Irish meteorologist on Bells Rock too (see paperpapers in this issue).

But this lighthouse has its own story. This story starts with a legend and goes onto the engineering revolution which the titanic building project involved. Inchcape is in the middle of the reef on the shipping route between Tay and Forth. As we have said, it only stands proud of the water during special tides: it is a silent killer for ships. This frightening reef has been known of since the Middle Ages. Legend has it that in the 14th Century the abbot of Arbroath put a giant bell on it which, moved by the sea, warned boats that the reef was there. And, in fact, that story gave the lighthouse its name some centuries later. In December 1799, a violent sea storm sank 70 ships off the coast of Scotland and the decision was taken to build a lighthouse. The authorities listened to what the engineer Robert Stevenson had to say. This Scots engineer had said for years that building a lighthouse on Inchcape reef would prevent a lot of accidents. Some years later the engineer’s grandson, the writer Robert Louis Stevenson, wrote about his grandfather and the lighthouse he had built.

It was built between 1807 and 1810. The workers had to endure frightening work conditions there. Isolated in the middle of the sea, even the smallest details were important. They anchored two ships there and built a palafitte on Inchcape Reef. In order to build a lighthouse like that 18 kilometres from the coast, a lot of advances had to be made and many inventions had to be developed. Amongst other things, quick drying-concrete and a set of pulleys to hold the weight-lifting horses. As they worked depending on the tides, when it was night-time they used a special petrol globe...

The lighthouse was ignited on February 1st, 1811 and is still lit to this day. In 1988 it was automated and, since then, there is no lighthouse keeper living there. And while a lighthouse keeperless lighthouse works just the same, it isn’t as poetic. In the same way that a prisoner keeps on remembering prison, we like to think that the Bell Rock lighthouse keeper is still there and feels the cold on his skin.