Scapa Flow Lighthouse Exhibition Re-opens at Stromness Museum

Stromness Museum has recently re-opened its newly revamped Scapa Flow Lighthouses exhibition, funded through the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme. The exhibition is now open to everyone interested in finding out more about the lighthouses, beacons, buoys and other minor lights that protect the Flow’s water.

The exhibition is housed in newly designed display cabinets and includes a diverse range of lighthouse artefacts. The centre piece of the exhibition is the Catadioptric lens from Hoy Low Lighthouse on Graemsay. The lens, with its silver plated copper reflector, is now illuminated by a recently installed overhead light giving the impression the old lighthouse lens is permanently lit!

Also exhibited are several interpretation panels that provide fascinating information on many aspects of the lighthouses social history. You can read more about: lighthouse keepers, their families and life stories; the famous Stevenson engineers who designed many of Orkney’s and Scotland’s early lighthouses; how technology has changed how lighthouses operate over the decades; and, the Northern Lighthouse Board who continue to manage safety at sea to this day.

Research materials for the exhibitions were kindly provided by the Orkney Library Photograph Archives, Kirkwall Library and the Scottish Lighthouse Museum at Fraserburgh, with the help of Tom Muir from Orkney Museum.

Bryce Wilson, Honorary Secretary of Stromness Museum said “I am very happy with the new exhibition. It involved a lot of time and work re-organising the museum but the end result is well worth it”. Bryce has asked former lightkeeper Jim Budge to look after the polishing of the lens, who he has been happy to agree to this.

The lighthouses project receives financial support from Heritage Lottery Fun, Orkney Islands Council and the Scottish Government and European Community Orkney LEADER 2007-2013 Programme.