Lighthouse Keeper's Cottages at
Blackhead
In the days before there was a border, lighthouses
round Great Britain were set up and managed by Trinity House,
and their counterparts round the coast of Ireland by the Commissioners
of Irish Lights; and the CIL continue to manage Northern Ireland's
lighthouses today. However the days of manned lighthouses have
gone, and everything is controlled automatically, leaving the
keepers' cottages redundant. The cottages and the lighthouses
themselves are often so integral that the Commissioners could
not consider selling them off, since they need access and control
of the lights which are still very much functional. The Irish
Landmark Trust was able to negotiate leases on a number of lighthouses
and has already restored some in the Republic. Its first such
project in the North is at Blackhead (which as you probably know
is at Whitehead), and following the successful restoration of
Ballealy Cottage Hearth has been appointed architects for this,
the second Irish Landmark Trust project in Northern Ireland.
Lighthouses are always placed in prominent locations,
invariably windswept and usually isolated. Blackhead is unusual
in being quite close to civilisation (the primitive painting from
about 1960 of which the above is a detail shows how close the
light is to actual holiday cottages between the cliff and the
beach of Whitehead). The artist Maurice Wilks had a studio in
a nearby cottage and often painted the view back towards the lighthouse:
However it is certainly exposed to the elements, as
the Carey painting in the Belfast Harbour Office shows (the lighthouse
is the small pimple at the top of the cliff):
When the lighthouse is operating, its light marks the
northern entrance to Belfast Lough, and its counterpart at the
Copeland Islands near Donaghadee can be seen answering it at intervals.
In
order to allow the keepers some sleep when off-duty, the light
is screened on the landward side. The maze of prisms encircling
the lamp means that quite a modest light can be seen for many
miles, 
while a series of valves around the top of the lantern 
ensure that the amount of ventilation
entering the structure can be carefully graduated to suit the
most gentle zephyr or the strongest gale from any direction.
The keeper's cottages are much less sophisticated,
but were built to the highest specifications about 1900 and have
been well maintained ever since. Looking out to sea past the lighthouse
they are built of random rubble stone and rendered, with a slate
roof constantly exposed to the thermal winds off the sea. Internally,
everything is designed for solidity and convenience. A well-crafted
trapdoor
gives access to the subfloor of the house, and throughout the
pitch pine doors and shutters have survived, along with most of
the fireplaces and cupboards, and even some of the original colour
scheme of cream walls and brown dado.
Although the houses were little altered and still had
most of the original built-in cupboards of varnished pitch pine,
the dresser was missing from one kitchen and had to be replicated.
Amongst the surviving fittings was a mysterious cupboard labelled
"for Lighthouse Service" - this was apparently a circulating
library of books that would have travelled from one lighthouse
to another providing entertainment for the men - sadly, the books
hadn't survived, so we don't know what they were enjoying. 
Another artefact that had survived was the massive blue ensign
of the Commissioners for Irish Lights - a reminder that they were
set up in the days when the British Isles were a single entity.
Here are Jess and Orla of the ILT unfolding it: 
Two cottages have been restored as holiday cottages
by the Irish Landmark Trust with the help of a grant from the
Heritage Lottery Fund, with Hearth acting as architects. The work
consisted mainly of renewing services, along with re-roofing and
reputtying the double-hung sash windows. The main contractor was
J S Dunlop of Ballymoney, and the quantity surveyor W H Stephens.
In
order to allow the keepers some sleep when off-duty, the light
is screened on the landward side. The maze of prisms encircling
the lamp means that quite a modest light can be seen for many
miles, 
while a series of valves around the top of the lantern 
ensure that the amount of ventilation
entering the structure can be carefully graduated to suit the
most gentle zephyr or the strongest gale from any direction.
they are built of random rubble stone and rendered, with a slate
roof constantly exposed to the thermal winds off the sea. Internally,
everything is designed for solidity and convenience. A well-crafted
trapdoor
gives access to the subfloor of the house, and throughout the
pitch pine doors and shutters have survived, along with most of
the fireplaces and cupboards, and even some of the original colour
scheme of cream walls and brown dado. 
Amongst the surviving fittings was a mysterious cupboard labelled
"for Lighthouse Service" - this was apparently a circulating
library of books that would have travelled from one lighthouse
to another providing entertainment for the men - sadly, the books
hadn't survived, so we don't know what they were enjoying. 
Another artefact that had survived was the massive blue ensign
of the Commissioners for Irish Lights - a reminder that they were
set up in the days when the British Isles were a single entity.
Here are Jess and Orla of the ILT unfolding it: 