For the first time in four decades, a crew of keepers will live on the Longstone rock through the winter, tending a light that has been automatic since 1990.

The trust that owns the tower says the move is “part museum, part experiment”. Volunteers will log the weather every three hours — as their predecessors did — and keep the lamp room clean by hand.

A quieter kind of job

“People imagine storms,” said Ruth Calder, 61, who served on the rock in the 1980s. “Mostly it was paint, brass polish and the radio.”

The sea does not care whether you are lonely. You learn to keep the routine.

The keepers will rotate every 28 days. Their duties include:

  • Recording barometric pressure and wind speed
  • Checking the fog signal each morning
  • Writing a daily log for the archive

Tickets for visits go on sale in March, and the trust expects the season to sell out within weeks; the rock can host just twelve visitors a day.