Happy Birthday Smeaton's Tower

Tomorrow is 250 years since the candles were first lit in the lighthouse warning ships of the danger at the Eddystone Reef. The third lighthouse to be built on the reef, it was designed to mirror the shape of an oak tree by its designer, John Smeaton.

In 1884 it was transported piece by piece and rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe after the rock on which it stood started to crumble under the ferocious pounding of the sea. It now stands proudly as an icon for the city of Plymouth and a landmark for miles around.
A new lighthouse was built on a nearby rock which can be seen from the Hoe on a clear day, standing next to the stump of the foundation stones of Smeaton's original tower as it was deemed uneconomic to dismantle the last largest stones.