Lighthouse At Tarbert Ness On Visit To East Coast Of Easter Ross Highlands Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video clip, with Scottish music, of the lighthouse located at the North West tip of the Tarbat Ness peninsula near the fishing village of Portmahomack on the East Coast of Easter Ross in the Highlands. It has an elevation of 174 feet and 203 steps to the top of the tower. Tarbat Ness Lighthouse was engineered by Robert Stevenson for the Northern Lighthouse Board and the light was first exhibited on 26 January 1830. James Smith of Inverness was the contractor responsible for the building of the lighthouse. The lighthouse tower is the third tallest in Scotland behind North Ronaldsay and Skerryvore and is notable for having two distinguishing broad red bands. According to local tradition, the site of the lighthouse was once a Roman fort and later used for witches' covens. Tarbat Ness is also a place of special interest for the observation of migratory birds. A storm in the Moray Firth in November 1826 saw the loss of 16 vessels and brought many applications for lighthouses to be constructed at Tarbat Ness. At the Battle of Tarbat Ness in the 11th century, Thorfinn the Mighty defeated Karl Hundason, possibly a Viking name for Macbeth. Further down the peninsula at Portmahomack, in the 1480s the Clan Ross slaughtered a raiding party from the Clan Mackay by locking them in the Tarbat Old Church and setting fire to it. This event is known as the Battle of Tarbat. All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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