Blacksod Lighthouse

When I had my visit to Erris, Agatha from Wild Atlantic Tours took me out for a day and showed me so many lovely places. I was going to keep it all as one blog post but I took so many photos and saw so many places that I’m going to make a few posts about it.

Our first stop was Blacksod Lighthouse where we were met by Lighthouse Keeper Vincent Sweeney, who also happens to be Agatha’s brother-in-law. The lighthouse was first established in 1866 and was is located at the southern end of the Mullet Peninsula near Erris, beside Blacksod Pier.

The lighthouse is one of only two squared-shaped lighthouses in Europe, the other one is in Germany.

Vincent was showing me the damage that has been done by storms, some of the wall was destroyed and huge rocks were smashed in two by the severe waves. You can see a video of the storm in 2014 here.

It’s such a peaceful building, it would be great to go back in time and see it when it was a busy, thriving place and also a family home, Vincent and his family used to live there. In fact Ted Sweeney, Vincent’s father, had a part to play in history. Before the opening of the meteorological station at Carne in 1957, he provided weather information from Blacksod to Dublin. Ted’s weather forecast in June, 1944 delayed the D-Day invasion of Normandy by Allied troops, by one day. You can hear more about that here:

It was great to be able to see the light itself, it was a lovely sunny day when I was there so the walls were covered in rainbows from the light.

Thanks so much to Vincent for showing me around and to Agatha for introducing me to him. I found it really fascinating, it’s the first time I’ve ever been inside a lighthouse.