A lighthouse enthusiast was on my 2019 guided cruise last July. As we were motoring past the Garvellach Isles he mentioned we were passing an IKEA lighthouse, and I had to ask what he meant. It turns out the term refers to the modern pre-fab beacons the Northern Lighthouse Board puts up when an old minor light needs to be replaced. Over the years I'd noticed several of these utilitarian towers had replaced the more traditional beacons seen in years past.
The IKEA tower on the Garvellachs replaced a light I'd first seen in 1997, that I believe was built in 1904. It was a more elegant structure than the tower that replaced it, and even more interesting because you could climb up onto to its small balcony.
The beacon that replaced it in 2003, while functional, does not allow for the wandering island bagger to climb to its top. I discovered this on a visit in 2016. Although you can climb the rocks to the base of the tower, it is not possible to get up on top.
Another example of this modernization is the beacon at Aird Laimisiader, two miles west of Carloway in Lewis. On a hike there over 20 years ago, as described in Chapter 18 of Book 2, I walked to the old beacon at the tip of the headland, which dated to 1892.
Over a decade passed before I walked that way again, when I discovered the old beacon had been replaced by one of the IKEA variety.
As the years pass these IKEA towers might become as iconic as those they replace. For we will probably see even more utilitarian structures in these remote spots: tiny Wi-Fi beacons pinging out their locations to warn self-piloted boats that danger lurks.
