The Lighthouse Stevensons: The Extraordinary Story of the Building of the Scottish Lighthouses by the Ancestors of Robert Louis Stevenson

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Working on rocky outposts off the coast, the building of the Bell Rock , Skerryvore, Muckle Flugga and Dubh Artach are compelling stories of the vision of the engineers and the impossibly difficult efforts of the workmen on each site. Robert Stevenson had pinned his reputation on the Bell Rock, and while he managed this early in her career, he remained a foreboding presence in the careers of his descendents. Robert Stevenson is his 4th Great Grandfather, which means my children also share this heritage and I want them to know about it. It's mind-blowing that anyone could build on those sites, especially in a era before power tools, as the key building period was the 1790s-1840s. Robert Stevenson’s father, Alan, died and his widow married Thomas Smith, a lampmaker, appointed to the recently instantiated NLB.

How will these lighthouses be built, and who is going to maintain these structures, on the most dangerous spits of rock in the North Atlantic? Here is the story of a family who does not seem as if they could exist in our modern world of short attention spans. Prior to this in 1791 Stevenson held a similar position in the building of Clyde Lighthouse on Little Cumbrae in the River Clyde. The Lighthouse Stevensons is a story of high endeavour, beautifully told; indeed, this is one of the most celebrated works of historical biography in recent memory.Whenever I smell salt water, I know that I am not far from one of the works of my ancestors,’ wrote Robert Louis Stevenson in 1880. During this time he oversaw the construction of many lighthouses, the most famous of which was the Bell Rock Lighthouse. Reading this book I learned, once again, how incredibly creative and industrious our nineteenth century ancestors were. I could have done without the last chapter about lighthouse keepers and how their profession is dying.

The author also does an excellent job of explaining the need for the lighthouses and the forces that opposed them. His contribution to engineering is deemed to be so significant that he was inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame in 2016. This is equally true in the area of lighthouse construction, a story that revolves around three generations of the Stevenson family of Edinburgh.

Later the lighthouse board (NLB) used this excuse: "if a lighthouse were needed there, we would have built one there already, but we haven't, so obviously it's not needed".

It was fascinating how Robert Stevenson and his team built it in stages, only during low tide at first, and they would stay on a ship nearby for the entire season as they built. The Lighthouse Stevensons’ is a story of high endeavour, beautifully told; indeed, is was one of the most celebrated works of historical biography in recent memory. In fairness he did give it a try but couldn't wait to get out and start writing and in addition he did pen 'A Family of Engineers' that recorded the Stevenson family tradition in the field, or more appropriately on the water.The Stevenson's were also responsible for lights in other parts of the world, and their engineering influenced lighthouse building everywhere. And even when lighthouses were starting to be built around Britain, there was often the excuse that 'if God had wanted a lighthouse there, he would have put one there'.