St. Marys Lighthouse
St Marys Lighthouse at Whitley Bay. Northumberland. UK.
St. Mary's Lighthouse is on the tiny Bait Island, just north of Whitley Bay on the coast of North East England. The small rocky tidal island is linked to the mainland by a short concrete causeway which is submerged at high tide. While it no longer functions as a working lighthouse, it is easily accessible (when the tide is out) and is open to visitors and has a small museum, a visitor's centre, and a cafe.
The lighthouse and adjacent keepers' cottages were built in 1898 using 645 blocks of stone and 750,000 bricks. It was built on the site of a monastery where a small sanctuary light would have acted as a guide to passing ships. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1984 and stands at 38-metre (125 ft) in height.
