This is an account of  various Scottish Lighthouses, Lightships, Foghorns and  Stations, in which various members of the Clyne Family and their relations, including my Grandfather and two great uncles served, or were connected with,  at the turn of the last Century. 

I suppose we could be described as "Lighthouse Spotters" or Lighthouse Collectors". Over the last few years, Gill and I  have managed to visit or at least see, every major lighthouse on the Scottish mainland, every minor light, and many island lights as well.  We have managed to take a photograph of sorts of all these lights bar one, and every photo on this site I have taken myself.  (Some are quite good, some not so good.  Some of those which are not so good were taken on a fairly basic camcorder and captured from that.  I used it because it had a much more powerful zoom than my still camera).  This undertaking has provided the main focus for several summer holidays in the caravan, has given us the incentive to undertake many "off the beaten track" walks or boat rides, and has provided enormous pleasure in enjoying some wonderful coastline and scenery which we would certainly not have seen otherwise.  The Post Cards in the Archive sections of the site, are from a collection originally belonging to my aunt, Charlotte Simpson Clyne, who was born at St Abb's Lighthouse in 1893. 

Throughout the Lighthouse area of the site, there are two sections - the first section deals with the various Lighthouses from a general interest point of view.  The second section contains  historical excerpts from various sources, including letters and postcards written by or to my ancestors, articles from various  lighthouse journals and records from other historical archives.  Many of these are quite fascinating!  The letters "NLB" stands for the Northern Lighthouse Board, and the letters "PLK" and "ALK"  stand for respectively "Principal Light Keeper" and "Assistant Light Keeper".  Lightkeepers began their careers as Supernumerary Lightkeepers.  This role was the "Trainee" period, in which the Supernumerary could be sent to learn the ropes at varying lighthouses, sometimes simply as a spare, and sometimes to "fill in".  If he proved himself competent, his name would be put on a list, and in due course, he would be appointed as an "ALK" (Assistant Light Keeper), when he could be expected to carry out  all the every day  duties of a Lightkeeper, without the responsibility of having to make the ultimate decisions, and  having to make the reports back to Headquarters.  Eventually, if he stayed in the Service long enough, and his record was unblemished, he might expect to rise to the rank of "PLK" (Principal Lighthouse Keeper) - the person in overall charge and responsible not only for the Lighthouse itself,  but also  the wives and  families who made up the station.  The PLK was a man to be looked up to, and the PLK's wife was often reputed to think of herself as a "cut above the rest".

The Northern Lighthouse Board of Scotland met for the first time in August 1786, to discuss and implement four new Scottish Lighthouses at Kinnaird Head, North Ronaldsay, Eilean Glas and the Mull of Kintyre.  Of course, there were already lighthouses in existence, some having been built by town councils, some by seamen, and some by local philanthropists.  The coal fired beacon on the Isle of May, claims to be the oldest lighthouse in Scotland, having appeared on Dutch maps from as early as 1654, but there were many others of varying size and effectiveness. 

The Clyne family began its associations with the Northern Lights less than a hundred years later, when many new lighthouses were being built and commissioned.  The lighthouses shown in the first table below show the stations where my grandfather, John Clyne, his younger brother Robert, sister Mary and brother-in-law Robert Agnew, served.  The latter was himself the son of a Lighthouse Keeper.  John Clyne's Lighthouse pages are complete (for the time being) while links to other pages may as yet show only photographs. If all goes according to plan,  I hope  that Robert Clyne's Lighthouses will be complete by Easter 2005, Mary & Robert Agnew's Lighthouses by Summer 2005 and the rest by Christmas 2005.  Watch this space!!

Other NLB Lighthouses, Depots, Stations and Ships where Clyne relatives  served, or to which reference has been made in the site.