Chaine Tower

54°51.270' North 5°47.878' West Aids to Navigation Light: Iso WR 5s with a range of 16 nautical miles Height of light above mean high water springs: 23 metres.

On the 19th June 1885 a letter from Messrs T. Dixon and Sons, merchants of Belfast, was read to the Commissioners of Irish Lights at their Board meeting, stating that a Committee had been formed for the purpose of raising a Memorial to commemorate the memory of the late James Chaine, Esq., MP for Co. Antrim and member of Larne Borough Council. James Chaine, who had died on 4 May 1885 at the age of 43, had been the owner and developer of Larne Harbour. At a subsequent meeting of Larne Borough Council it was decided to elect a committee to build a suitable memorial to their deceased colleague. Mr Thomas Dixon, who was chairman of the Memorial Committee, had been asked to enquire if the Commissioners would contribute towards the cost of a proposed lighthouse on Curran Point, which is about 300 metres to the south of the 16th century Olderfleet Castle, and whether, if it was decided to erect a memorial lighthouse, the Commissioners would maintain it. The Board resolved that this was a local matter and Mr Dixon should be informed that the Commissioners regretted they would not be able to comply with either request.

In April of the following year another letter was received from Messrs L’Estrange and Brett of Belfast, acting on behalf of the Memorial Subscribers, asking if the Commissioners would object to the erection of a beacon, without a light, on Sandy Bay Point on the Larne side of the entrance to Larne Lough almost opposite Ferris Point, and requesting the Commissioners’ sanction for such a beacon. The Board asked the Secretary, Mr O. Armstrong, to check the local chart. He did this and reported back at the following Board meeting. The Commissioners then referred the request to the Inspecting Committee who in turn looked into the matter and duly recommended that the building of a tower be sanctioned, providing the Memorial Committee submitted a notice to the local Harbour Authorities.

The beacon was designed by the Carrickfergus architect S.P. Close in the form of an Irish round tower, and built by public subscription. The tower, which became known as Chaine Memorial Tower, was completed in January 1888 with full Board of Trade and Commissioners of Irish Lights’ approval, complete with a Notice to Mariners. Ownership of the tower was vested in Trustees appointed by the town of Larne for its construction. Larne and Stranraer Steamship Company undertook to maintain the tower. The Commissioners’ Inspector of Lights & Marine Superintendent, Captain A.F. Boxer, recommended that the beacon should be painted black but the Inspecting Committee disagreed and the tower was left a natural stone colour.

In April 1896 Larne and Stranraer Steamship Joint Committee wrote to the Commissioners of Irish Lights drawing their attention to the inadequate buoying of Hunter Rock off the entrance to Larne Harbour. They suggested that a light should be fixed on the stone beacon on Sandy Bay Point.

Two months later the Inspecting Committee recommended that a light should be placed in Chaine Tower and suggested that the Trustees of the tower should be approached with a view to handing over the tower to the Commissioners. They also stated later that they were prepared to improve Ferris Point by raising it and placing two lights in Chaine Tower with one half way down, to be a guiding light for the passage between Hunter Rock and the shore.

Mr D. MacDonald of Larne offered every facility to the Board’s Engineer, Mr William Douglass, to examine the tower with a view to converting it to a lighthouse. By the end of July a letter had been received from the Chaine Memorial Trustees stating they had no objection to the Commissioners using the tower providing the exterior was not interfered with and the causeway maintained in proper order, and also that it would solely be used as a lighthouse. The Commissioners agreed to the terms and informed the Trustees of the proposed alterations that would be required to modify the tower. Mr Macdonald replied that there would be no objections to further openings in the tower so that a light could cover Hunter Rock.

In April 1897 a letter was sent to Trinity House requesting sanction to the proposal to mark the channel between Hunter Rock and Sheenaghan Point by a white occulting light. In their reply Trinity House suggested that instead of a light in Chaine Tower, the red sector in Larne Harbour Light (Ferris Point) should be extended to guard the reef off Barr Point, but the Commissioners could not agree with the Elder Brethren that this would give the required effect. The following month Trinity House sanctioned the erection of a fifth order occulting light in Chaine Memorial Tower and by the end of July the Board of Trade sanctioned the expenditure of £796 for the cost of a new light.

Alterations to the tower were commenced but during December 1898 the Chaine Tower Trustees objected to the manner in which the alterations were being carried out. Mr Douglas submitted an explanation and the Trustees were informed that the red brick in the windows would be faced with similar stone to that of which the tower was build and also the sides of the concrete steps would be faced with masonry stone.

The Inspector & Marine Superintendent, Captain Galwey, presented a Notice to Mariners to the Board in March 1899 which was approved and ordered to be issued. The new light, a fifth order condensing lens with occulting mechanism, gave a white and red flash every five seconds (that is 3 seconds flash, 2 second dark). The light was established on 1 July 1899. The power and range of the light in the white and red sectors was 1,000 and 300 candelas and 10 and 7 miles respectively. The tower is 28 metres high and the light shines through a window 22 metres above high water with a 10 white sector south of the Hunter Rock and red south of the white sector to land. However, it appears that no formal agreement was drawn up, and the tower and causeway were not vested in the Commissioners of Irish Lights.

An additional Assistant Keeper for the Maidens Lighthouse was sanctioned to keep watch at Chaine Tower and early in 1900 a dwelling was rented in Larne for the Keeper to live in.

The light at Chaine Tower was made unwatched from 5 October 1905 and the Assistant Keeper in charge was dispensed with. The light was converted from oil to coal gas from the mains at Larne and two special small hot air engines were installed manufactured by William Sugg, each with double acting cylinders, to compress the gas for the patent high pressure incandescent burner. The character of the light remained occulting at the same candle power. The Principal Keeper at Ferris Point, on the other side of the Lough entrance, was put in charge of the light at Chaine Tower. The Assistant Keeper’s dwelling was surrendered to the landlord early in 1906.

On 15 October 1926 the Board was informed that the Larne Gas Company had intimated that the gas supply was liable to be cut off within three days due to the shortage of coal caused by the General Strike. The Engineer, Mr C.W. Scott was instructed to send, by motor lorry, a standby acetylene generating plant together with a fitter to carry out work to enable the light to be maintained. Extant records do not relate whether this apparatus was put into use, or when it was returned subsequently to the Lighthouse Depot, Dun Laoghaire.

Conversion of the light from gas to electric was approved by the Board in April 1930 but the change over did not take place until 12 September 1935. The gas supply was replaced by the 230V DC local system and a Stone Chance lamp changer fitted with two 100 watt 240 volt lamps, one in use and one spare. If the second lamp failed, a Keeper from Ferris Point had to cross the Lough entrance by contractor’s boat and set up the standby acetylene burner with a dissolved acetylene supply from a high pressure cylinder. The new electrified light resulted in an increase in candle power in the white sector from 1,000 to 2,700. Chaine Tower was the second light to be converted to electric, Donaghadee being the first almost twelve months earlier on 8 October 1934.

In April 1948 the DC supply was changed to AC.

In 1955 Larne Borough Council made an opening in the causeway, and in the mid 1960s they carried out repairs to the causeway.

On 19 June 1964 the character was altered from occulting 5 seconds to isophase 5 seconds, that is 2.5 seconds flash, 2.5 seconds dark. A car-type head lamp shining across the Lough entrance to Ferris Point indicated to the Keeper on duty that the electricity supply was ‘on’. If the supply failed then a 24 volt battery took over automatically and through an inverter, supplied 220 volts to the lamp in the optic, but not to the indicator lamp. When the supply resumed the battery was cut out, the indicator lamp shined out again and, if required, the battery was automatically recharged.

Following investigations and legal advice obtained by the Commissioners and others in 1968 it emerged that nobody knows who now owns the tower and causeway. It was ascertained that the tower was vested in Trustees who now are all deceased, with no provision made for their successors. It was quite definite that it did not belong to Larne Borough but that it was built on land vested in the Crown lying in the inter-tidal area.

Over the years the Commissioners of Irish Lights carried out various repairs on the Tower, mainly pointing work to prevent ingress of water damaging the lighting equipment.

In 2000 in the interests of safety the Commissioners of Irish Lights renewed the electrical wiring across the causeway to the Tower, and also renewed the safety railings across the causeway.

In 2006–7 the Commissioners of Irish Lights completely re-equipped the light to provide reliable operation for the next 20 years. As an adjunct to this project the Commissioners decided that the commorative plaque above the door of the Tower should be restored. As the plaque was considered to be property of the people of Larne the Project Engineer, Tim Ryan, on behalf of the Commissioners, wrote to Larne Borough Council requesting permission to do so, suggesting, as alternatives, that the Council refurbish the plaque themselves or recommend a local contractor. In a reply dated 10 January 2008 the Council agreed that it would be appropriate that the plaque should be restored and offered to assist in any way possible. They proposed that the best approach would be for the Commissioners of Irish Lights to restore the plaque. The Commissioners contracted Davidson & Son Stonework to restore the plaque at a cost of £1,280. The Commissioners notified the Council accordingly, and suggested that the Council might like to make a contribution towards this cost, thus making the restoration of the plaque a joint project.