Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
It can be said that the life was a singular one in all respects. At mainland or island
lighthouses, where the families lived, whether they liked it or not, it was inevitable that
they were part of the job too. At mainland stations, a semblance of family life could be
maintained for all three keepers, and the keepers' children went to school locally. One
suchexamplewasinWesterRoss.Thiswasaveryremotemainlandstation,somuchso
in fact that it was provided with its own station car (an Austin 1100), which the keepers
took turns to drive.
ThislighthousewasnotregardedasaschoolingstationduetoitsdistancefromGair-
loch (the nearest village), and one keeper there was transferred to the Butt of Lewis
when his child reached school age.
Thisclosenesstooneanothercould,anddidattimes,leadtostrainedrelationsamong
the keepers. The keepers generally got along with each other, although the nature of
the work demanded that they do so. There were exceptions to this but it can be said
that people generally would find their own level and attempt to fit in somehow. Living
in such close proximity developed an atmosphere of mutual tolerance that would cer-
tainly not have been the case in other situations. It was a unique existence, one which
mayverywellhaveheldeveryonetogether.Despitethiscloseproximity,morethanone
keeper stated that they would not describe another keeper as a friend. They were there
not by choice, but because the Board had dictated that they serve there. Generally, they
tended to respect each other's privacy and simply got on with it, though this was ob-
viously difficult at times. This description of keepers and their families finding accom-
modation together was certainly not new and went right back to the beginning of the
service.
The essential element in the make-up of a keeper was self-discipline, as without it
theycouldnothavefunctionedasaunit.Ithasbeensaidbysomekeepersthatanumber
of PLKs failed to recognise this and tended to take themselves far too seriously, forget-
ting that they were there only by virtue of their length of service and nothing more. All
keepers were perfectly capable of carrying out the tasks of a PLK and indeed many of
them did so when a PLK took leave or suffered periods of illness. A number of keepers
felt that this facet of their inter-relationship with PLKs was often overlooked.
Itcannotbedeniedthatontherocklighthouses,lifeforthekeeperscouldbedifficult
at times and everything would depend very much on the personalities of the other two
whom a keeper would be 'on' with; keepers were there for twenty-eight days straight,
day and night, in close proximity to each other and it could, and did, get 'tricky'.
The ALKs took it in turns to cook the three meals a day, the PLK being exempt from
this 'onerous' burden, which upset some ALKs, but most simply got on with it. The
cook was, at least, exempt from day work (such as painting and cleaning) for the dura-
tion of his time in the kitchen.
