Eddystone Lighthouse

The Eddystone Lighthouse stands on the Eddystone Rocks about 14 kilometers south of Rame Head off the coast of Cornwall, England, marking a reef that has been the site of four successive lighthouses since the first, completed in 1699, became the first open ocean lighthouse in the world. The current tower, designed by engineer James Douglass and completed in 1881, drew on techniques pioneered by John Smeaton for the third Eddystone light, whose upper section was later relocated to Plymouth as a monument. Standing 49 meters tall and operated by Trinity House, the light was automated in 1982 and converted to solar power in 1999.