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Moderator visits Lighthouse Base in Oban
TOn Tuesday 23 April 2002 the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland the Very Rev. John Miller will visit the Northern Lighthouse Board's Base in Gallanach Road, Oban.
The visit is part of the Moderator's tour of the Presbytery of Lorn & Mull to see first hand the various aspects of life in the area. The Northern Lighthouse Board has had a presence in Oban for nearly a century with its Base which is used for maintaining, painting and repairing buoys, the storage of engineering equipment for lighthouse related work on the West Coast, and is also the base port for the Board's vessel MV PHAROS.
The Moderator will get the opportunity to tour the Base and observe buoy working and painting before meeting with the staff.
Notes to the Editor
1. The Oban Base has just been fully modernised and was officially re-opened by the Board's Patron Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal in December 2001.
2. The Northern Lighthouse Board operates under statute - the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 - and is the General Lighthouse Authority for Scotland and the Isle of Man.
3. The Board currently operates: 201 Lighthouses, 131 Buoys, 41 Beacons, 4 Differential Global Positioning System Stations, 22 Radar Beacons and 12 Fog Signals.
4. The Northern Lighthouse Board is funded entirely from the General Lighthouse Fund, sourced by "Light Dues", a levy paid by shipping. The Board receives no direct funding from the Exchequer or taxpayer.
5. The other General Lighthouse Authorities are the Commissioners of Irish Lights (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) and Trinity House Lighthouse Service (England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar).
For further information, please contact:
Lorna Hunter, Information Officer
Tel 0131 473 3100
Fax 0131 220 2093