The Lighthouse Stevensons: The Extraordinary Story of the Building of the Scottish Lighthouses by the Ancestors of Robert Louis Stevenson

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Robert Stevenson is the crux of the story as a civil engineer in the early 19th century whose masterpiece, Bell's Rock, set his reputation.

Of course, the famous Stevenson family were responsible but thankfully RLS decided that the life of an engineer was not for him. I first saw the book while staying at Cantick Light, a set of lighthouse keepers' cottages on the island of Hoy, in Orkney, while there for a music festival two years ago. The way the builders "lived" in temporary "rocket barracks" was very interesting if dangerous and unpleasant! One of the curiosities was that the Stevensons were responsible (or assumed responsibility) for the lighthouse keepers - insisting there should always be three, so that if one died another could not unfairly be accused of murder, the fear of this occurring had apparently led a lighthouse keeper not to have reported the death of his colleague who instead mouldered grimly in the lighthouse. Robert Stevenson’s father, Alan, died and his widow married Thomas Smith, a lampmaker, appointed to the recently instantiated NLB.

After being pressured to join the family business, Robert Louis Stevenson pursued a literary career that produced “ Kidnapped”and “ Treasure Island”. I for one had no idea that the 14 lighthouses dotting the Scottish coast were all built by the same Stevenson family that produced Robert Louis Stevenson, Scotland's most famous novelist. We read about the fatalism of the populace in accepting that a career at sea was, by its nature, dangerous. The father, uncles, grandfather and, step great grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson were all pioneering engineers who were responsible for building some of the most remote lighthouses around the Scottish coast.

From Biographical Sketch of the Late Robert Stevenson: Civil Engineer, by Alan Stevenson (1807-1865). As a lighthouse lover, having visited over 70, I rated it a 5-if you are not a lighthouse lover, perhaps a 4.There had been lighthouses in England for awhile, but Scotland had other challenges such as atrocious weather, “wreckers” (those who lured ships to claim their possessions), and most felt that shipwrecks were Providence (God’s will). Where the kindle version falls flat is without more pictures of the actual lighthouses (there are some drawings etc). I've written books on Robert Louis Stevenson myself and can attest to her knowing just when and how to bring in details from the novelist's life. I learned about them, their builders and quite a lot about Edinburgh history while reading this book, and the book itself is a late discovery. Stevenson was also known for developing city infrastructure, including railway lines, bridges such as Scotland’s Regent Bridge (1814) and monuments such as the Melville Monument in Edinburgh (1821).