Egg Island Lighthouse

The lighthouse was originally an octagonal wood tower, 45 feet high, painted white, with black stripes to seaward. Between 1962 and 1965 it was replaced by a skeleton tower, with an enclosed stairwell.

In 1870, in a heavy storm, the keeper's house was struck by a sea which swept right across the island. The house was washed from its foundations and deposited 150 feet away. The keeper and his family escaped into the light tower just in time. All the fences and other buildings were destroyed and about 100 feet of the boat slip was carried away. The lighthouse was repaired so the keeper and his family could live in it and secured with wire stays and anchors. The house was later repaired.

This photo was taken in the Spring of 1935 or '36 by Ruth Kidson, my mother. Warren Kidson, my father had rowed Mom, my two brothers Ralph and Robert, and me out for a run in our double-ender work boat. It was a beautiful Spring morning, the ocean was as still as a mill-pond. Mom took the picture from just east of the North Gully where we went in to land out boats at the slip-way which you can see in the picture. Our motor-boat is up on the slip-way in front of the boat house.