Historical memoir of the family of Eglinton and Winton

146 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
hundred feet; and at this point still stands the
deserted walls of an original lighthouse, a slender
round tower about thirty feet in height, erected
hei*e in the year 1750, and which is said to have
been the second structure of the kind ever built
on the Scottish coasts. Its principle was rude and
simple in the extreme — a huge fire of coals was
kept burning on its summit throughout the night ;
and which in stormy weather must have presented
a very striking object, blazing and sparkling at so
great a height amidst the gloom and turmoil of the
tempest, as well as to have been of no ordinary
difficulty to trim and keep a-foot ; it was quite a
herculean task too to fetch the coals up to it from
the landing place at the old castle below. But, worst
of all, in foggy weather it was frequently of no ser-
vice whatever, from its great elevation, being quite
obscured from view. Still, down to the year 1793,
no better provision existed here for the guidance of
the great commercial channel of which this is the
special and principal entrance. At this period,
however, the present scientific and beautiful light-
house was erected and established. It is seated on
the buttling edge of a precipice eighty feet in
height, rising immediately out of the water below,
on the west side of the island, about midway along
its shore — the solitary old turret of its predecessor
looking directly down on it from its commanding
station above. The lantern of this interesting and
graceful structure stands about one hundred and
twenty feet above the tidal level, and is lighted by