Beyond Melvaig the coast road keeps going until the land narrows and a white lighthouse appears at the entrance to Loch Ewe. This is Rubha Reidh: a headland facing the Minch, with Skye and the islands beyond it when the weather allows.
It can look like a solitary tower at the end of the road. The keepers’ buildings, the jetty and the recorded line of an old supply tramway tell a fuller story. For most of its working life this was a staffed station on an exposed stretch of coast, not a monument placed for the view.
Why it took nearly sixty years to build
David Stevenson proposed a light here in 1853. The Board of Trade refused the £5,000 cost. In 1906 his son, David Alan Stevenson, made the case again. The headland sits between the lights at Rona and Stoer Head and looks straight onto the approach to Loch Ewe. He wanted a powerful light and a fully manned station.
Trinity House first favoured a smaller unmanned beacon. The lighthouse commissioners held out for a staffed one. In May 1908 the Board of Trade approved £14,900 for the light and fog signal. According to the Northern Lighthouse Board, the light first shone on the night of 15 January 1912.
The white tower is 25 metres high. The light itself stands 37 metres above the sea and flashes four times every 15 seconds. One figure is the building; the other is how far the beam sits above the water.
Life at the station
Supplying the station took more than a gate at the road end. Historic Environment Scotland’s listing records a jetty about 400 metres north-east of the lighthouse, with a trackway and a tramway running up the incline from the shore. The tramway has gone. The recorded route still shows what it took to land stores on this coast.
The fog signal was withdrawn in 1980. The station was automated in 1986. The original lens, foghorn and clockwork mechanism are now at Gairloch Museum — the closest most visitors will get to the working interior of a tower they cannot enter.
The keepers’ work was not only the light. In 1944 the American Liberty ship William H. Welch missed the entrance to Loch Ewe in a severe storm and went ashore at Black Bay. The Northern Lighthouse Board records that two Rubha Reidh keepers helped rescue 15 of the 74 people aboard.
Looking out over the Minch
In clear weather the view reaches towards Skye, the Shiant Isles and the Outer Hebrides. In haze the same islands can vanish. From here it is easier to see why the Stevensons pressed for a light at this particular point: it marks the mouth of Loch Ewe on a long, open stretch of the Minch.
There is no need to promise wildlife. The water, the changing visibility and what remains of the working station are enough.
Visiting Rubha Reidh
The approach is from Gairloch through Melvaig. Beyond Melvaig the road crosses a private estate and access is limited. Check the current information from the lighthouse accommodation before you travel, and follow signs on the day. Do not assume you can drive up to the buildings. The Northern Lighthouse Board lists no public access to the tower, and the former keepers’ quarters include private accommodation.
Walkhighlands describes parking in an old quarry shortly before the end of the road. Use only parking that is permitted when you arrive. Keep passing places and turning areas clear. There is no public transport to the lighthouse.
A short look at the lighthouse is not the same as the longer walk towards Camas Mòr. That route uses rough, exposed cliff paths and boggy ground. If you walk it, take proper footwear and allow for weather that can be harder than it felt in Gairloch.
Explore further: find your bearings in our guide to the North Minch, then look back across the water from Tiumpan Head on Lewis.
