Covesea Skerries

History

Many applications were made for lights to be established at Covesea Skerries and Tarbet Ness following the loss of 16 vessels during a storm in the Moray Firth in November 1826.
Initially the Commissioners and Trinity House agreed that it was unnecessary but letters and petitions continued; the engineer and a committee of the Board visited the coast, and eventually the Elder Brethren were asked to look for the best site. They recommended a lighthouse on Craighead with a beacon on Halliman's Scars, which the Commissioners agreed to. A pyramid of iron pillars went up in 1845, and in 1846 a mainland light was shown from the Covesea Skerries Lighthouse.

The high walls that surrounded the lighthouse building for shelter caused 'strong whirlwinds' in the courtyard and interfered with the lightkeepers lookout, on 1907 a start was made to lower these.

The lighthouse was automated in 1984 and is now remotely monitored from the Northern Lighthouse Board's offices in Edinburgh. The original lens can be seen in Lossiemouth Fisheries and Community Museum.

The NLB and the other General Lighthouse Authorities for the United Kingdom and Ireland carried out a Review of the current and anticipated future requirements for the safe passage of national and international shipping in 2010. It also addressed the requirements of other mariners, such as fishing and leisure users. Each lighthouse, buoy and beacon provided by the Board was studied in isolation, as well as in relation to other aids in its vicinity, to establish if it was still required or if additional/improved provision was required. This process involved utilising Geographic Information System (GIS) overlays along with Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) shipping patterns and other factors to allow a view on aid to navigation requirements to be formed. The vessel traffic analysis demonstrated that commercial shipping proceeding to/from the north passes some distance from Covesea Skerries lighthouse, near Lossiemouth and that the Tarbat Ness lighthouse supported navigation in this area. Traffic proceeding east/west tended to be close inshore using Covesea Skerries lighthouse as a course alteration to/from the Inner Moray Firth. This indicated that there was no longer a requirement for the long range Covesea Skerries lighthouse but navigation in the area would be improved if Halliman Skerries was marked. Following a further formal consultation process with local users, harbour authorities, ship owners and ship operators, fishing groups and leisure users no objections were received on the proposal to discontinue Covesea Skerries lighthouse and to mark the Skerries. The Halliman Skerries was marked by a North Cardinal navigational lit buoy fitted with X Band Radar Beacon at the north eastern extremity of the Skerries on 21 February 2012 and Covesea Skerries lighthouse was permanently discontinued on 2 March 2012.

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