A picture of Kirkabister, in the county of Shetland

The lighthouse building was completed in 1858 and in August of that year it started work. The light house tower is 48 foot high. The light was powered by candles and then paraffin until July 1967 when the light was then powered by electric. The mirrors that reflected the light and the mirror mountings were driven by clockwork, and floated on a tank full of mercury. This was all replaced with rollers when it all went automated in 1988. The old clockwork mechanism can be found in the excellent Shetland museum.

Shetland