Bell Rock Lighthouse & Holyhead Mail Pier Lighthouse
The Bell Rock Lighthouse, near the entrance to the Firths of Forth and Tay, was built during 1807 and 1810. Rennie was, by some, credited with the design and execution, but there seems little doubt that he was only nominally responsible for the great undertaking. Robert Stevenson, surveyor to the Commissioners of Northern Lights, drew the original plans and, at his suggestion, the commissioners called Rennie into counsel when the works were begun, bestowing on him the honorary title of chief engineer. Stevenson did not accept the modifications proposed by Rennie, but the two men remained on friendly terms. Rennie visited the lighthouse while it was being built. According to Robert Louis Stevenson, Stevenson's grandson, the Commissioners of Northern Lights paid Stevenson alone when the lighthouse was completed. When Stevenson died in 1850, the Commissioners put on record in their minutes that to him was 'due the honour of conceiving and executing the Bell Rock lighthouse'. But Rennie and his friends always claimed that the general advice which Rennie gave Stevenson entitled him to rank the building among his own achievements.
The Holyhead Mail Pier Light, is a conical white house which was built by Rennie in 1821. It is probably the second oldest lighthouse in Wales, after Point of Ayr Lighthouse.
There is a matching tower in Howth, Ireland, also designed by Rennie, for the other terminal of the Irish packet steamer. The lighthouse is of national significance as one of Rennie's surviving works. Of particular importance, in a Welsh context, is the early date of the lighthouse lantern, which was originally lit by gas. Before the conversion to electricity a gas works was located on the island to power the lighthouse, the piers and even part of Holyhead itself. The works were constructed at a cost of £130,000, an astronomical sum at the time. The tower survives intact and has beautifully curving gallery railings, similar to those at Bardsey Island Lighthouse. It is no longer in use, although it is used as a navigation reference for sailors.
Read more about this topic: John Rennie The Elder
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