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Home > Angus Listings > Architecture & Natural Attractions > Bell Rock Lighthouse
The Bell Rock lighthouse is situated in the North Sea on a partially-submerged reef some 11 miles (17.5 km) southeast of Arbroath on the East Coast of Scotland. One of the major engineering feats of the early 19th Century, it was designed by noted lighthouse engineer Robert Stevenson (1772 - 1850) and came into service in 1811. The lighthouse tower was built from four types of stone; granite from Cairngall Quarry near Peterhead was used for the foundation, while the skin of the tower, which had to resist the brunt of the sea, comprises granite from Rubislaw Quarry (Aberdeen) with a core of Old Red Sandstone from Mylnefield Quarry, Kingoodie. Finer sandstone from Craigleith Quarry (Edinburgh) was used in finishing the structure and building the parapet around the light. Formerly also called the Inch Cape, the reef came to be known as the Bell Rock when an Abbot of Arbroath set up a bell here to warn sailors of the danger. Southey's famous Ballad of the Inchcape Rock tells how Sir Ralph the Rover cut down the bell and a year later perished when his ship hit the same rock.
