Noss Head Lighthouse was engineered by Alan Stevenson, established in 1849 and automated in 1987.  It flashes alternately white and red every 20 seconds.  The white flash can be seen for 25 miles, and the red for 21 miles.  

John Clyne, my grandfather, was posted to Noss Head In July 1901, having been promoted to the rank of Principal Light Keeper (PLK),  and he remained there for 5 years and 3 months.  Had the NLB had their way, Noss Head Lighthouse would not have been built there at all; although recognised that there was a need for a lighthouse on the Caithness coast, the NLB, with their local knowledge and after due consideration, recommended that it should be built  south of Wick at Sarclet Head.  The matter was put to the Board of Trade, who had to be consulted whenever major expenditure was involved.  They, in turn, asked for the view of the "Elder Brethren" of Trinity House, who decided that from a geographical point of view, the lighthouse would be better situated at Noss Head.  The Board of Trade went along with the view of  the older body, and the lighthouse was duly built at Noss Head.   It was not until the First World War that the views of the NLB were vindicated – with the increase in shipping due to the  naval base at Scapa Flow, it was deemed necessary to built another lighthouse south of Wick, and the lighthouse of Clythness was established in 1916.  This lighthouse would not have been necessary had the first been built at Sarclet Head as originally recommended by the NLB..                                                   

Noss Head is a headland overlooking Sinclair’s Bay, just north of the town of Wick, and about 20 miles south of John o’ Groats.  When the lighthouse was built in 1849, Wick was the busiest herring port in Europe, exporting tons of fish all over the world, both to east and west.  The fishing industry has, of course, greatly declined,  but nowadays, the bay is relatively busy with large maintenance and servicing boats for the North Sea Oil Rigs, much less attractive and considerably less lucrative, at least for the surrounding area.  Nowadays, the town itself is not very inspiring, and neither is the lighthouse site.  The tower itself is still well maintained, but the Keepers’ cottages have sadly been allowed to fall into a bad state of repair.   Apparently they were sold some years ago to an Arab who has neither visited nor maintained the property.  Fortunately, the sad state of the lighthouse site was mitigated to an extent by the lovely walk along the nearby cliffs, through fields covered with wild flowers,  beside the twin castles of Sinclair and Girnigoe, strongholds of the Earls of Caithness, and built precariously over the sea on impressive cliffs and sea stacks.  These alone were well worth the visit. 

Leaving Wick through a grey housing estate, the road leading to the lighthouse passes by a series of runaways belonging to a pretty tatty aerodrome.   I presume that this was the road which caused my grandfather a considerable amount of concern, as did many of the lighthouse roads at the time.  It was one of the duties of a  PLK  to ensure that the road leading to the lighthouse was kept in good condition, and a certain amount of money was allocated annually for this purpose.   Obviously when dealing with the sort of tracks which led to lighthouses, there were many occasions such as landslips, flooding etc. which gave rise to extra expenditure being necessary.  At the time of  grandfather's service at Noss Head, the reason was somewhat different.  It seemed that part of the road was being used as a short cut by a group of fishcurers, to take cartloads of spring water from the Inkerman  quarry to Pultneytown, (nowadays more or less incorporated into the town of Wick) where they cured their fish.  According to the subcontracted roadman, these carts were far too heavy and were making deep ruts in the road and if allowed to continue, there would not be enough road metal left to maintain the road until the end of the year.  When John Clyne wrote to the NLB about the matter, little did he realise how much time and effort it was going to cost him in getting to the bottom of the problem, and tracking down the guilty parties.  Over the course of the next few months, John was passed from pillar to post as he trudged from one place to another making his enquiries - one of the Curers admitted to having received water, but said he did not know  where it had come from; some of the Carters admitted carrying the water for the Curers, but would not say who had employed them to do so, at the same time admitting that they had done so for some years with no questions asked.  No real conclusion seems to have been reached, but a fortuitously mild end to the winter meant that the road lasted for the rest of the season with no extra expenditure, and the enquiry itself appears to have put an end to the practice. (See Noss Head Archives)

Another  interesting historical item from John Clyne’s time at Noss Head  relates to an incident which occurred on the Dogger Bank on October Bank 1904 at the time of the Russo-Japanese War.  In the course of this outrage,  ships of the Russian fleet, believing that they were encountering hostile torpedo boats, fired on and sank vessels of the British Fishing Fleet, an event which obviously triggered a full scale international enquiry.  Some of the enquiries were directed to the Lighthkeepers on the Scottish East Coast.  From the replies, John Clyne states that no such vessels were visible from Noss Head; further south, at Rattray Head, it appears that eight ships possibly answering the description passed at about the correct time, about four miles off shore, quite a distance away and too far to be able to identify national ensigns, while the report from St Abbs Head states quite categorically that two Torpedo ships were seen, both flying the British Ensign. Will the whole truth ever be known?  (See Noss Head Archives) 

During their five years at Noss Head, a seventh child was born to John and Isabella - Thomas Robertson Clyne, born in 1904.  Tom grew up to be a pharmacist, living and working in London.  (The surname “Clyne”  was local to the Caithness area, and very common.  The “Clynes” were a sept of the Clan Sinclair.  At the time John and Isabella were at Noss Head, there were many families surnamed “Clyne”, but none related to them – the earliest “Clyne” recorded from John’s side of the Clynes was most likely the birth on 15^th May  1763 of  one James to Wiiliam Cleyn and Isobel Sim at the Mill of Brucklay, between New Deer and Strichen in Aberdeenshire – James graduated at Aberdeen University and became a much respected schoolmaster at Menmuir in Angus).  

Another family matter which arose while at Noss Head was that it became necessary to find alternative accommodation for the older boys who were by now, looking for employment.  During July, 1905, their father took leave to travel with them to Glasgow - a post card from John to Isabella, who remained at Noss Head, reports that the boys were very sick on the passage, and that he was finding the city streets hard on his feet!! (See the post card in Noss Head Archives).  The boys may have been settled, but 18 months later, the remainder of the family were on the move again,  this time to Inchkeith Lighthouse, in the Firth of Forth, within sight of the city of Edinburgh.

St Abbs Lighthouse       Inchkeith Lighthouse  Rattray Head Lighthouse