The Museum of Scottish Lighthouses

Scottish Lighthouse Museum
©2022 Gazetteer for Scotland

Scottish Lighthouse Museum

Located on Kinnaird Head, just to the northeast of the Aberdeenshire town of Fraserburgh, the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses illustrates two centuries of work by the Northern Lighthouse Board protecting shipping around the Scottish coastline. The Edinburgh-based Northern Lighthouse Board was created by an Act of Parliament in 1786 and Kinnaird Head Castle Lighthouse, which forms the major part of the museum, was their first lighthouse. Built by the first engineer to the Board, Thomas Smith (1752 - 1815), on top of an existing castle. The museum includes a gallery honouring the 'Lighthouse Stevenson' dynasty of engineers who were responsible for many of the lighthouses around Scotland's shores, including considerable work on the Kinnaird Head Castle Lighthouse. This light was decommissioned in 1991, and maintained for the nation with support from Historic Scotland and the Scottish Lighthouse Museum Trust. Visitors can experience the old Kinnaird Head lighthouse, engine room and keeper's cottages as they were the day the last keeper left. They can also walk around the headland to see the new light, together with other lighthouse-related equipment.

The museum also includes an audio-visual presentation, displays on the history of the Scottish lighthouses and boasts the most significant collection of lighthouse lenses and equipment in the UK.


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