For open minds
In Pure Spirit
What a powerful photograph.
It seems to be full of contradictions. You have the calm backdrop and little seagul on top of the lighthouse and yet the rough and white sea. You have nature in constrast to the fading and yet resilient tower. There is blue versus white and dark versus brightness.
Picture credit: Nicola Friargiu.
Souter Lighthouse
Souter Lighthouse is not actually on Souter Point but is a mile north on Lizard Point. Lizard Point is in Tyne and Wear, England. The lighthouse opened in 1871, built by James Douglass and situated on Lizard Point as that was simply a better location. The name Souter Point was given to the building to avoid confusion with Lizard Lighthouse in Cornwall.
Souter was the first lighthouse to make use of an alternating electric current which was powered by a steam engine in the engine house and generated 800, 000 candle power.
Hauntings
One of the former lighthouse keepers is thought to have stayed at his post even after death and remains in the building to this day.
A ghost known as the nosy ghost is frequently heard roaming around and detected from the scent of the cigars he likes to spoke. The former colliery worker is also prone to moving things around and slamming doors closed.
There have been a large number of shipwrecks on the rocks below the lighthouse and the figures of drowned sailors are sometimes reported among the waves or combing ashore.
In Pure Spirit
Is there something special about lighthouses? They are betwixed and between; sharing a boundary with the elements of water, earth and air – while somtimes using fire as well. Do the duties of the brave lighthouse keepers and intensity of living alone create conditions more likely to keep spirits close?
