The collection at The Museum of Scottish Lighthouses is recognised as being of national importance, comprising material from lighthouses across Scotland. The Museum holds the UK’s best collection of lighthouse lenses as well as archives from the Stevenson family and a large photographic collection.
Lighthouse keepers got involved in may different hobbies, keeping themselves busy while they were not on watch. Painting was one of these hobbies. While the overall collection contains a few oil paintings, many of them have been painted by lighthouse keepers.
Lighthouse keepers and their families still donate material from their lighthouse service days to the museum. Several of the paintings are on display in the museum’s galleries or in Kinnaird Head Lighthouse.
The outstanding works from the collection include Gerald Coulson’s painting of Fraserburgh’s Harbour Light, a charming image of Rattray Head Lighthouse painted by A. Summers, as well as one of Kinnaird Head by the same artist.