Importance of Lighting the Scottish Coast--Formation of Board of Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses--Early Proceedings of the Board--Principal Northern Lighthouses--The Isle of May Lighthouse--Loss of two Frigates--Application of the Admiralty to the Lighthouse Board, by whom the Duties and the Island of May are purchased--Numerous Shipwrecks on the Island of Sanday--Foundation-stone of Start-Point Lighthouse laid--Rev. W. Traill’s Address upon the occasion--Subsequent Proceedings on Sanday Island--North Ronaldsay Lighthouse--Melancholy Accident--Importance of the Northern Lighthouses. The coast of Scotland is deservedly celebrated for the skill and enterprise of its lighthouse system. This coast, extending to about two thousand miles in circuit, is, perhaps, the most dangerous of any in Europe. Previous to the erection of efficient lighthouses, it was frequently strewed with wrecks, and proved how inadequate to the protection of the mariner were the few feeble lights which were then under the controul of private or local trusts. Accordingly, in the year 1786, the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses were, by Act of Parliament, erected into a board, consisting of his Majesty’s advocate and solicitor-general, the chief magistrates of the principal burghs of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, Campbeltown, and the sheriffs or judges ordinary of maritime counties. The preamble to the act states, ‘That it would conduce greatly to the security of Navigation and the Fisheries if _four_ lighthouses were erected in the northern parts of Great Britain;’ namely, one on Kinnaird Head, in Aberdeenshire, one on the Orkney Islands, one on the Harris Isles, and one at the Mull of Kintyre, in Argyleshire. Such appears to have been the state of trade in Scotland about sixty years ago, that the erection of four lighthouses was all that was contemplated. But no sooner were these four lights erected than their importance to navigation was immediately acknowledged, and frequent applications were made on the part of the shipping interest to erect others. Accordingly as the funds of the board allowed, lighthouses or other means of exhibiting lights have been erected upon many promontories of the main land, or upon islands and reefs lying off the coast of Scotland, including the Isle of Man. These lighthouses being for the most part situated in remote and inaccessible districts, it was resolved ‘that the engineer should charter a vessel annually, to carry a full complement of stores and other necessaries for the use of the lights, and such artificers, implements, and materials, as might from time to time be found necessary for making repairs at the lighthouses;’ the engineer was also to pay an annual visit to each lighthouse, and report upon the state and condition of the buildings, and the conduct of the light-keepers.