Baltimore Beacon

White conical daymark known as Lot's Wife, on the cliffs at the harbour mouth

The Baltimore Beacon is a conical white stone tower about 15 metres high, standing on the cliffs at the entrance to Baltimore harbour. Locals call it Lot's Wife, or the pillar of salt. It's a daymark for ships, not a lighthouse, and it never had a light. It was built in 1847–49 to replace an earlier, smaller beacon that had been badly built and vandalised.

Walk out from the village along Beacon Road; the clifftop views take in Sherkin Island, the harbour mouth and the open Atlantic.

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A story
Getting the beacon built took the Ballast Board almost two years of correspondence. A naval survey reported the old beacon destroyed in July 1847, permission for the land came from Lady Carbery a year later, and the masonry was only finished in February 1849. The iron vane originally placed on top proved vulnerable and was later replaced with a sphere.

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