Facelift for lighthouse
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As paint jobs go it is certainly a tall - and unusual - order.
For one of Britain's most iconic and remote lighthouses - surrounded by a bombing range - has been repainted for the first time in over a decade, and just before major war games are about to start.
What is more, the £150,000 plus job was carried out in one of the wildest locations in the country where 100mph winds downed brushes on more than one occasion.
But getting to Cape Wrath Lighthouse in Sutherland, which is near the 921-feet highest vertical cliffs on mainland Britain, is not easy. It usually involves a ferry journey across the narrow Kyle of Durness and a 11 mile trip up a bumpy road.
But this time some of the materials - including 130 litres of paint - had to be flown in by helicopter.
The lighthouse is also surrounded by Britain's biggest bombing range and the only place in Europe where 1000lb bombs can be dropped. The area is closed for war games up to 120 days a year.
Major Nato war games are set to start at the end of the month, so the half-a-dozen painters had to take advantage of the "peace dividend" before a brush with being in the firing line.
And they certainly - and literally - made light work after starting two months ago and are due to finish in time for Exercise Joint Warrior to begin.
It is the first phase of sprucing up Cape Wrath Lighthouse and nearby buildings with the next works - including internal repairs - starting in July with completion by March 2020.
There are 81 steps to the top of the 400 feet high tower of the lighthouse, whose 25-mile range beam is now controlled from the Northern Lighthouse Board in Edinburgh after the light was automated in 1998. Solar panels are planned to be installed in the future.
Craig Field, Project Leader with the Northern Lighthouse Board said:“Cape Wrath lighthouse is an iconic and valuable part of the community and has been guiding mariners safely through Scottish waters for over 190 years.
"It’s vital, therefore, that we carry out this essential upgrade to ensure the lighthouse continues to serve the mariner for many more years to come.”
David McNish of contractors TRAC Engineering added:“We’ve worked with the NLB for almost 10 years, and our teams are used to working and often living in remote locations. As you can imagine, the environment at these structures is pretty harsh with the only contact to the mainland via satellite phone and access by boat or helicopter.
“It takes a certain resilience to do this work, with the teams living and working together 24 hours a day on certain structures. Despite the challenges, camaraderie is high and we really appreciate that we’re privileged to see parts of the UK not everyone has access to.”
The name of the Cape Wrath headland derives, not from the stormy waters of the area but from the Norse word for a "turning point", as Vikings turned their ships to head home.
Aside from the military bombing, the lighthouse's surrounding terrain can be so dangerous that a few years ago an artist died from hypothermia and starvation after undertaking the trek on her own.
Even in good weather, there has been the occasional tragedy, from birdwatchers getting too close to the cliff edge to a poor woman who spread her plastic coat on a grassy slope, sat down to admire the view and promptly slid to her death!
Winds have been known to reach 120mph at Cape Wrath which teems with wildlife such as deer, sea eagles and below passing whales.
The MoD currently own 25,000 acres - almost the entire headland apart from a parcel of land surrounding the lighthouse, located on the north west tip.
The tower is built of hand dressed stone and the rest of the building is constructed of large blocks of granite quarried from nearby Clash Carnoch. The tower and dwelling houses are listed buildings of architectural and historic interest.
The first helicopter relief at a shore-based Scottish lighthouse was carried out at the lighthouse on January 17, 1977.
And the light has had one Royal visitor. Princess Anne, who is patron of the NLB, also popped in by helicopter in 2009.
A community buyout of the 111-acre site around the lighthouse was abandoned last year.
Cape Wrath currently attracts around 6,000 seasonal visitors annually.
The cape's only permanent residents are John Ure and his daughter Angela who run the Ozone Cafe near the lighthouse and a bunkhouse.
"It has been quite a paint job - we have had a couple of 100mph winds, so the guys had to work indoors on those days and others when it was just too much," said Mr Ure.
"There cannot be too many harder locations to work in - but the lighthouse is looking good."
There was once a full-time community of around 35 people living on the cape in the 1930s. Today it just the Ures.
Mr Ure and his late wife Kay shot to worldwide fame when Kay was separated from husband for four weeks by the weather at Christmas in 2009 when she went to buy a turkey.
But the Ures say they currently face being "marooned" not by bombs, but by by potholes, because Highland Council does not have the cash to repair them.
The only other regular vehicle on the road is the 16-seater tourist mini-bus operated by James Mather.
Mr Mather said the state of the road was now so bad that "we have 11 miles of pot holes held together by the occasional bits of tar."
He estimated that some of the holes were "18 inches deep."
A previous survey for Highlands and Islands Enterprise found Cape Wrath is worth £600,000-a-year to the surrounding local economy of Durness.
