The Lighthouse Downtown!

Built into the Kincardine harbour hillside in 1881 to service a busy fishing and local salt shipping industry, this octagonal wooden tower is the only lighthouse ‘downtown’. The Kincardine lighthouse sits 24.4 metres (74 feet) tall, aloft a two-story keeper’s house.

Sailors, recreational boaters and commercial fishers can see the now electrified working light from 30 kilometres.

The eight-sided tower rests on a stone foundation. Above the rear-entrance door, the year 1880 is inscribed in the cornerstone. The three levels of the lighthouse are joined by steep, straight, almost perpendicular staircases making a total of 69 steps (climbed at least twice daily by past lightkeepers). Barrels of kerosene, used to fuel the lamp, were hoisted up these stairs by the keepers.

The tower is capped by a red iron lantern and balcony, painted in the familiar "lighthouse red". The first lamp had shutters rotated by weighted chains to make the light flash. In 1922, the lamp became electrically powered and, today, large lenses rotate around a 500-watt bulb.

During the 1800's, the harbour was home to major industries which required a safe harbour for shipping products in and out of Kincardine. Salt was mined at the harbour; lumber and furniture companies and fishing boats needed a safe port.

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