Sgeir Bhuidhe (2002)

Sgeir Bhuidhe is a small rocky outcrop in Loch Linnhe, located just north of Port Appin, and just a short distance off of the North-Eastern end of Lismore Island. A lighthouse was first established on Sgeir Bhuidhe in 1904. The tower first lighthouse was one of a handful of automatic types used by the Northern Lighthouse Board, built to the design of David Alan Stevenson. The early 1900s saw hundreds of automatic lights built to his designs spring up all over Scotland's many remote islands and headlands, each only requiring occasional maintenance and refuelling, doing away with the need for lighthouse keepers and their adjoining accomodation. Unlike most lights built up till this point this tower was a rather utilitarian design, comprised of a basic lantern room and gallery free of any ornamental styling, mounted above a large upright cylindrical tank which formed the body of the tower. A number of these tank lighthouses were built, however they were far less common than some of the other types of automatic light, and now only one remains intact on Sgat Mòr at the mouth of Loch Fyne.

In 2001 the Northern Lighthouse Board gave notice that it intended to replace the lighthouse with a more reliable tower. The Iron tower had seen better days, and the board were gradually replacing many of Stevenson's small automatic lighthouses, some of which had fallen into quite a poor state of deterioration.

Ordinarilly a new minor light tower constructed on Scottish shores would likely have been a SPLAT (Solar Powered Lattice Aluminium Tower), a rectangular structure that is purely built as a navigational aid, not resembming a traditional lighthouse at all. The Appin Historical Society, Appin Community Council and many local residents were concerned by this, as the lighthouse was an important local landmark that was subject of many art works and photographs. Together they were able to successfully persuade the Northern Lighthouse Board to reconsider the the kind of structure they would replace the light with, and instead the board proposed a fiberglass tower that better resembled a typical lighthouse, complete with a glazed Lantern room and Gallery. Next to the tower is a concrete platform that supports a bank of solar panels, which power the light.