Lighthouse Model Sells For $25,000
By Sue Clark on Nov 29, 2007 in The Light Side 
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A model of Bell Rock Lighthouse, created by Scottish Lighthouse Engineer Robert Stevenson, sold at auction for £12,000, or $24,732. The purchaser was the Angus (Scotland) Council, which plans to put the model on display at the town’s Signal Tower Museum, where it will join other displays by the famed lighthouse designer. This design became the standard for other of Stevenson’s towers.
Bell Rock was a feat of engineering. It was established on the highest point of a reef off the Angus coast and directly in the path of ships headed for Dundee. The precipitating event for this structure was the wreck of the warship the HMS York, last of a long line of vessels to be demolished on this reef.
Work began in 1807, and two men died during its construction. The reef is only exposed for three hours a day at low-water spring tides and could be up to 16 feet under water at any other time. At first, the builders lived on board a vessel anchored off the rock. Afterwards they moved into a wooden tower erected alongside the construction. The entire structure of specially shaped interlocking blocks was carved on the mainland then dismantled and shipped by boat to the reef where the pieces were assembled and fixed in place using oak pins and wedges. The light was first lit in 1811 and automated in 1988.
The auction was handled by Bonham’s in London on behalf of the descendants of the Stevenson family. It has been in the family since Stevenson gave it to his daughter as a gift.
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