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A Life in Lighthouses
Like his family before him, Brian Johnson has worked in and around lighthouses all his life.
Brian Johnson has worked in and around lighthouses all his career, and continues to do so in his retirement. One of his uncles served as keeper at Sumburgh Head, the oldest lighthouse in Shetland, and other uncles served on lightships off the isles. He told me he remembers being taken on visits ‘when I was still in single digits’.
Sumburgh Head, designed by Robert Stevenson and completed in 1821, stands on a dramatic promontory on the largest of the Shetland Isles, about 100 miles north of mainland Scotland, where the North Sea meets the North Atlantic. The tower is 56 feet tall, about 300 feet above sea level. From here you can see orcas, minke whales and dolphins, and get up close with puffins, kittiwakes and razorbills.
Brian in his turn became Supernumerary Assistant Keeper at Sumburgh Head in 1969, but has mostly worked as a lighthouse technician. Originally a plant fitter, he was employed by the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB), which owned all of Scotland’s lighthouses. ‘We repaired everything on a lighthouse from the optic to the door locks. Engines, generators, compressors, the main optic, water pumps, winches, fuel pipelines, relieving-boats’ engines.’ Brian enjoyed the creative freedom.
