Smeaton's Eddystone Lighthouse (dovetailed masonry and hydraulic lime)
Faro de Eddystone de Smeaton (sillería ensamblada y cal hidráulica)
- Date
- 1756-1759 · confidence high
- Place
- Eddystone Rocks, Plymouth, Devon, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- John Smeaton
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A tower of granite blocks dovetailed together and bedded in a lime that set underwater, with a curved profile modelled on an oak tree. It withstood storms for 120 years and set the model for wave-swept rock lighthouses.
The tower was dismantled in 1877 because the foundation rock was eroding and rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe (Smeaton's Tower); it is the third lighthouse of the Eddystone series.
What it led to
- the exposed lighthouses of Bell Rock and Skerryvore
- the development of cement from hydraulic lime
- civil engineering as a profession (Smeaton)