Everyone loves a lighthouse on a sunny, flat-calm day. They stand on picturesque headlands overlooking the seas as nostalgic reminders of the days before satellite navigation, when they were the only warning for ships to stay clear of treacherous shores.
But there is another, less-romantic kind of lighthouse built on barren, rocky outcrops that rise vertically out of the open sea. These are the shockingly exposed tower lights, fortified strongholds designed to withstand the invasion of wind and waves rather than armies and artillery.
A famous photograph clearly illustrates the dark, dangerous side of these lifesaving beacons. Taken from a helicopter in 1989 by French photographer Jean Guichard, it is of La Jument lighthouse off the island of Ushant at the southern end of the English Channel. Gale force winds and huge waves had smashed the lighthouse windows, broken the door and flooded the
