South Bishops Lighthouse
The South Bishop Lighthouse is on South Bishop Island (also known as Emsger), approximately 5 miles (8 kilometres) west of St Davids Head.
Designed by James Walker, it was built on the island in 1839, acting both as a waymark for vessels navigating offshore and as assistance to ships navigating around the island group. This Southerly most island if one of a small group of islands that run behind Ramsey and are collectively known as the Bishops and the Clerks.
The lighthouse was converted to electric in 1959, and in 1971 a helipad was constructed.
The lighthouse was automated and demanned in 1983, like many in the UK. It is monitored from the control centre at Trinity House in Harwich.
The Lighthouse was built in the path of migrating sea birds and the brilliance of the light at night led the birds to dash themselves against the lantern. Many died and when Trinity House and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds teamed up, they came to the conclusion to build special bird perches on the side of the lighthouse lantern. After this the amount of deaths decreased considerably.
