Since automation took hold in the latter part of the twentieth century, lighthouse keepers have become few and far between. In the UK, they no longer exist.
Overseas, there are sparse examples of manned lighthouses. Your best chances of finding one would be the outskirts of Canada, or other areas which are far enough from settlements for governing bodies to risk automating it.
Julian was a lighthouse keeper for twenty years, from 1974 to 1994. He was kind enough to sit down with me and talk about his experiences as a lighthouse keeper.
The podcast is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, as well as on YouTube. There are also bitesize clips available on TikTok. The choice is yours! Thank you to everyone who has already listened and enjoyed it, it’s been lovely to see everyone embrace the best ex-lighthouse keeper in the world!
Below is the full interview, streamed through Spotify. If you enjoy the episode and fancy seeing a couple of lighthouses in person, come along for our May meet-up! We’ll be visiting the Beach Head and Belle Tout lighthouses. Tickets are going fast, so get yours while you can (they’re free!). Click here to read more.