There are two lighthouses on the Maidens, not one, built 800 yards apart on neighbouring rocks in the North Channel about 9 km off Ballygalley – and the reason people remember them is a love story. In the 1830s Thomas McKenna, assistant keeper on the West tower, courted Mary Redmond, daughter of the principal keeper on the East tower. With open water between them, they signalled across by semaphore and slipped between the rocks by boat, until they gave up on permission and eloped to Carrickfergus in 1839.
The rocks themselves are the exposed tip of an olivine-dolerite sill – the same volcanic plumbing that built the Giant’s Causeway up the coast. You can’t land on them; the most realistic way to see the lighthouse is from the water, or, if you’d rather not pay for a boat, from the Charles Lanyon-designed Antrim Coast Road, where the East tower is visible offshore near Ballygalley.
The two towers
Larne’s merchants and Admiral Benjamin Hallowell Carew petitioned the Ballast Board for a light here in 1819, after a run of wrecks. The board’s inspector, George Halpin, surveyed the rocks and recommended two towers; Trinity House sanctioned them in 1824, and both lights were first exhibited on 5 January 1829. The West tower stood 84 ft above the water with a 13-mile range, the taller East tower 94 ft with a 14-mile range.
Keepers and their families lived out on the rocks year-round, supplied by boat. In 1889 an auxiliary light was set into a window of the East tower to mark the nearby Highland Rocks. Then in 1899 a plan to moor a lightvessel and discontinue the West light took shape: an improved light went into the East tower and was exhibited on 12 March 1903, and the West tower was abandoned. Its lantern is long gone, but the stonework and the external walkways are still standing on the northern rock, the living quarters a ruin.
From 1906 the Maidens became a combined station with Ferris Point, whose principal keeper took charge of both, with shore dwellings for the keepers’ families at Ferris Point. The light was automated and electrified in 1977. A racon transmitting the Morse ‘M’ was added in 1996, and on 15 September 2010 the character was changed to its present three white flashes every 15 seconds (Fl (3) W 15s), with the range trimmed to 23 nautical miles.
What it looks like
The surviving East tower is the classic Irish profile: a white cylindrical stone tower with a single black band, lantern and gallery on top, attached to a two-storey keeper’s house, now empty. Its focal height is 29 m. Painted white against a low sun it stands out sharply – early or late in the day is best for a photograph, and the triple flash is easiest to pick out as the light fades.
Seeing it
Landing on the rocks is prohibited, so it’s a boat or the coast road. Charters and dive boats run out to the Maidens from Larne Harbour, Portmuck and Ballylumford in the warmer months; check schedules locally, expect a couple of hours on the water, and be ready for trips to be called off, because the North Channel runs strong tides and the weather turns fast. The water around the rocks is a protected seabird and marine habitat, and seals and dolphins are regular company on the crossing.
If a boat trip is more than you want, the honest answer is that the East tower reads perfectly well from the Antrim Coast Road – pull in near Ballygalley on a clear day and you’ll see it out in the channel for nothing.
The Maidens also star in a short film worth seeking out: the 1976 documentary Maidens in Distress records a final supply run to the East tower just before automation, and it’s free to watch on the IFI Player.
Nearby
- Ballygalley – The fishing village nearest the rocks, with a harbour, a café and interpretive panels about the Maidens.
- Antrim Coast and Glens – The wider Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, for cliffs, walks and the coast road itself.
For most visitors the verdict is simple: drive the coast road, find a lay-by near Ballygalley, and let the East tower do its work out in the channel. Save the boat for a settled day and a real interest in getting close.