Situated off the Northumberland coast, Coquet Island is a vibrant seabird sanctuary, which is home to the UK’s only roseate tern breeding colony. It is also an important site for nesting puffins and common, Sandwich and Arctic terns.
The island which derives its name from, and lies opposite the mouth of the river Coquet, is visible from the Simonside hills and from very considerable distances to the north and south ; in the nearer distance it forms the most conspicuous and attractive feature in the landscape, for by day the whitewashed walls of the lighthouse tower, and by night the revolving light (said to be at its brightest at a twenty mile radius), arrest the eye of the onlooker. It has an area of about 14 acres.
Coquet Island also holds the remaining structure of a medieval monastery on the southwestern shore, which was largely incorporated into the 19th-century lighthouse and lighthouse keepers' cottages.
Coquet Lighthouse was built by Trinity House in 1841 at a cost of £3,268. James Walker designed the lighthouse, which is a white square tower of sandstone, with walls more than one metre thick, surrounded by a turreted parapet. The first keeper at Coquet Lighthouse was William Darling, the elder brother of Grace Darling.
The lighthouse was initially provided with a large fixed dioptric along with a set of mirrors which were replaced with refracting prisms ten years later the lens was by Isaac Cookson & co. of Newcastle upon Tyne. The lamp was oil-fuelled. In 1854 red sectors were added, to warn ships of Hauxley Point to the south and Boulmer Rocks to the north. Later, in 1870, a separate sector light was added, pointing south from a lower window in the tower. In 1891 both lights were made much more powerful; the main lamp was replaced with an eight-wick mineral-oil burner, and its character was changed to occulting being eclipsed for 2.5 seconds every minute.
An explosive fog signal was established at the lighthouse in 1902, which sounded once every seven-and-a-half minutes later sounding every three minutes, it was still in use in the 1970s. The light was electrified in 1976; up until this date a paraffin vapour burner provided the main light, and an old-style Argand lamp provided the sector light.
In 1990 the lighthouse was automated, at which point a revolving array of quartz halogen sealed beam lamps were installed in place of the old optic, with columns of lamps grouped in threes on a rotating pedestal, so as to display three flashes every 30 seconds. Subsequently, these were replaced by a small revolving optic, mounted on an AGA PRB gearless drive. Coquet's light has been solar powered since 2008.
The original 1841–1851 optic is now on public display, along with the old occulting apparatus, at Souter Lighthouse, further down the coast.
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