Located above the cliffs of Duncansby Head, the most northeasterly point of Caithness, Duncansby Head Lighthouse looks out over the eastern entrance to the Pentland Firth 1½ miles (2.5 km) east of John o' Groats. The lighthouse is unusual, comprising a square white battlemented tower 11m (36 feet) in height which was constructed in concrete. It was established in 1924 - relatively late in Scottish lighthouse history - by engineer David A. Stevenson (1854 - 1938). A two-storey block of keepers' cottages lies adjacent.
The first structure to be built was a temporary fog signal in 1914, to be replaced by a permanent foghorn after the First World War. In 1940, during World War II, the lighthouse was machine-gunned by a German bomber, although without injury or damage.
The light is 596,000 candlepower (7.491 million lumens) and has a range of 22 miles (35 km). The lighthouse was automated in 1997 and is now remotely monitored from the Northern Lighthouse Board Headquarters in Edinburgh.
