‘Blast from the past’ — Sumburgh foghorn toots for the end of the season
The clock strikes noon, and lightkeeper Brian Johnson begins firing up — the engines are olive, earplugs lime green. After 10 minutes there is enough pressure to make a start.
For 80 years Sumburgh Head lighthouse’s big, red foghorn called out over the water to warn sailors of the nearing rocks. Now it toots twice a year to mark the beginning and end of the season —- and the occasional wedding, or film crew.
Mr Johnson opens a valve and another motor up on the cliffs begins spinning a siren fast enough to turn 20 times in a second. Once that’s up to speed a second valve opens automatically and air fires through the horn across the waves.
“It’s very, very, very simple,” says Mr Johnson. But for visitors the effect is anything but.
“I’ve never experienced anything like that before,” said Chris Harris after hearing the horn this morning.
“The sheer power of the foghorn rattled right through me. It wasn’t just a sound – it was a feeling, a piece of Shetland’s history coming alive.”
This year’s blast was, ironically, delayed by Storm Amy at the start of the month.
“It doesn't feel like the end of the season until we've sounded the fog horn,” said Jayne Outram, Sumburgh Head’s site manager, now at the close of her eleventh year working at the lighthouse and visitor centre.
“It’s just such an evocative sound — a sound from the past.”
While the centre is now closed for the winter, Ms Outram said Sumburgh will keep sounding back into Shetland’s past for as long as there are people to hear it.
“It's great that we're able to still work with these engines, and that's down to Brian in his expertise. Without his commitment maintaining these engines and the siren and the foghorn, we wouldn't be able to hold events like this,” she said.
“As long as there's support interest, then we'll keep doing it.”