A PLANNING application seeking listed building consent to carry out works at St John’s Point Lighthouse is set to be submitted in the near future.
In a recent statement, the Commissioners of Irish Lights confirmed that it plans to undertake works at the Killough landmark, and that the project is ‘primarily aimed at improving the reliable and safe operation of the lighthouse for the mariner’.
‘While making these operational improvements, the project will also improve and protect the condition of the lighthouse, which is a listed building,’ it read.
‘The works will form a listed building consent application that will be submitted to Newry, Mourne and Down District Council.’
A factsheet on the St John’s Point Lighthouse proposal states that the engineering works planned are ‘necessary to ensure the reliable and safe operation of this essential Category 1 aid to navigation in a sustainable way’.
‘The proposed works will retain the rotating Fresnel lens and unique flash character of the light,’ it continues.
‘Irish Lights has completed similar projects at Tory Island, Rathlin West and Rathlin East Lighthouses, and the project will utilise an innovative bearing system and light technology based on extensive research.’
It is highlighted that the project will ‘reduce the range of the light to 18 miles’, will ‘replace the existing metal halide light-source (1,000 Watt) with LED (90 Watt)’, will ‘retain auxiliary light with LED equivalent’, and will ‘remove mercury’.
A new battery back-up system will ‘replace the operation of the diesel generator’, whilst interior wall lining will be removed to allow for the exposure of ‘the original masonry of the lighthouse tower’.
The document adds that the works will ‘reduce cost and maintenance requirements at the lighthouse’ and ‘provide opportunities for realising the tourism potential of the site’.
An information session on the future planning application – for which registration closed on Monday – is being held in Newcastle’s Burrendale Hotel (today).
Earlier this year, a PAD (pre-application discussion) submission – which allows potential applicants to discuss and receive advice on their proposal from planners prior to lodging a full application – in relation to the Point Road lighthouse was received by council.
The Commissioners of Irish Lights website notes that St John’s Point Lighthouse is one of 70 lighthouses it operates ‘around the coast of Ireland’, and that it is also one of 12 lighthouses that make up an all-island tourism initiative called the ‘Great Lighthouses of Ireland’.
It also highlights that the light was first established at the Killough lighthouse 180 years ago on 1 May 1844, and that it continues to play ‘a vital role in maritime safety’.
