Sometimes a photograph connects two places instantly in your mind.When I saw a photograph, that regular visitor Andrea May took of North Light on Lundy, It immediately reminded me, of another lighthouse. A lighthouse staring back across the Bristol Channel. Except this one, is not really a lighthouse at all!

Andrea always has a knack for finding photographic angles that are unique. Her image of North Lighthouse immediately brought to mind the famous ‘lighthouse’ house at Croyde — the house that became known through the TV Programme Grand Designs as one of the programme’s saddest stories.

The two ‘lighthouses’ sit on opposite sides of the Bristol Channel, both exposed to Atlantic weather, both standing prominently against the coastline, yet representing completely different ideas.

Built by Trinity House in 1897, North Light was created out of necessity, helping ships to navigate the dangerous waters around Lundy. It is functional, weathered, it exists because sailors depend on it. It’s function being to warn, guide and protect.

The Lighthouse That Isn’t a Lighthouse

The other lighthouse was born from aspiration — a dream of coastal living shaped into the image of a lighthouse. A home designed to take in the panoramic view of the coast, an architectural statement in the landscape.

One lighthouse was built for lifesaving the other for a lifestyle. Paul Dean, Lundy visitor

But unlike North Light, which was built to do a job, the Croyde lighthouse became something else entirely. Renovations began in 2014 and continued for years, spiralling far beyond the original plans and budget. The project became tied to recession, financial strain and ultimately the breakdown of family life. What began as an ambitious dream home became publicly known as the “saddest” Grand Designs story.

As someone who has passed through Croyde, I have watched the structure slowly rise from the cliffs, over the last one and a half decades. Firstly as an exciting architectural project, then later standing unfinished behind hoarding boards that have seemed to remain there forever. Fourteen years on from when work first began, the building has become part of the landscape itself, though not always in a way locals appreciate. For some, it feels less like a beacon and more like a scar on one of North Devon’s most beautiful coastlines.

Before the Art Deco Lighthouse was created, the house – Chesil Cliff House – was originally a 1950s cliff-edge home. It looked out across Croyde Bay towards Lundy. I visited there soon after it was bought by Ed and Hazel Short. Invited with my children for a barbecue and a sea swim. There was a stairway leading down the cliffs to a tiny cove for swimming. To me, a Northern Lass from the gritty North, the experience felt magical, like something out of Enid Blyton book.

Even back then, the location carried the atmosphere that people associate with Lighthouses, that of exposure to the weather, romance and the endless pull of the sea.

Our Fascination with Lighthouses

Lighthouses seem to fascinate us as a Nation. They appear constantly in photography, films, paintings and social media feeds. They represent solitude and resilience, but also escape — the fantasy of living at the edge of the world with nothing but weather and sea beyond your windows.

I always get excited when we travel to our project home in Portugal as often the ferry goes past one of the most famous lighthouses for photography – La Jument off the isle of Ushant, Brittany. Fortunately we only see it in calmer seas from the Ferry!

I have also been fortunate enough to step inside North Light itself, shown around by a Trinity House lighthouse man. Inside, the atmosphere felt entirely different to the imagined romance people often attach to lighthouses. It was practical, mechanical, purposeful and shaped by weather, maintenance and routine .

And that contrast stayed with me when looking again at Andrea’s photograph.

Signals Across the Bristol Channel

These two structures face the same channel, the same fog, the same Atlantic storms. You can see Lundy North Light flashing from Croyde on a clear night. The lighthouse built to save lives, flashing to the one that unravelled one.

For now at least, the story in Croyde appears to have settled. The property hss been sold after years of publicity and speculation. Although the hoarding boards are still in place. Whilst across the water on Lundy, North Light continues quietly doing what it was always built to do — standing against the weather, watching the sea, and guiding sailors.

Do you have a favourite Lighthouse? Let me know in the comments.

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