A lifetime of Islands: Island 461 - Longstone, Farne Islands

Longstone is the most easterly of the main islands that make up the Farne Islands. The archipelago is located 6 miles to the north east of the town of Seahouses in Northumberland. Longstone has no vegetation on it but it does have a very smart red and white stripy lighthouse. Its main claim to fame is that it was once home to the Darling family.

Grace Horsley Darling was born in her grandfather's cottage in Bamburgh on 24th November 1815. She was the 7th of the nine children of William and Thomasin Darling. When Grace was three weeks old she was taken to live in the cottage next to the lighthouse on Brownsman, which is another of the Farne Islands. William had worked as assistant to his father Robert, who was the lighthouse keeper on Brownsman but Robert died shortly before Grace was born and William succeeded him as the official Trinity House lighthouse keeper.

In 1825-6 a lighthouse was built on Longstone and the family moved to live in it. They kept their garden on Brownsman to grow fresh fruit and vegetables, as there is no soil on Longstone.

Longstone lighthouse, which was originally called Outer Farne, was designed and built by Joseph Nelson. It has a 26 metre high a red and white circular tower built of rough stone with iron railings around the lantern gallery. The light was originally powered by Argand lamps with 12 burners. It was electrified in 1952 and automated in September 1990. It has a range of 18 nautical miles. In 1942 the fog signal house on Longstone was destroyed by bombing. In 1951 an accommodation block was built on the site of the fog signal house. This now houses a small museum.

In the early hours of the morning of 7th September 1838 the steamer Forfarshire, which had been on its way from Hull to Dundee, was wrecked on Big Harcar (also known as Hawkers) Rocks during a gale. 43 of the 63 people on the boat were killed but when dawn broke at 4.45am Grace spotted the wreck. At 7am the Darlings spotted some survivors clinging to the rock. Grace and her father then set out in an open rowing boat known as a coble to see if they could rescue the survivors. After rowing nearly a mile Grace and William reached Big Harcar. William climbed on to the rock to assess the survivors, while Grace kept the coble steady. Initially four men and a woman were successfully taken off the rock. Some of the men helped row the boat back to Longstone. William then returned with two of the survivors and rescued the remaining four men. The survivors had to shelter at Longstone Lighthouse for another 3 days until the winds died down. They were joined by 7 lifeboatmen from Seahouses who had rowed the 5 miles to Big Harcar, only to find that the only survivors had already been rescued by William and Grace. They were unable to return home and sought refuge at Longstone.

Nine other men from the Forfarshire survived by getting into the ship's lifeboat. They were picked up by a passing boat during the night.

Grace became renowned as a heroine. She received several awards, including the Gold Medal of Bravery from the Royal Humane Society and a Silver Medal for Gallantry from the RNLI. People flocked to meet her, she had her portrait painted by several artists and she was invited to attend functions. Plays, songs and poems were written about her. However in 1842 her health began to decline. She was diagnosed with tuberculosis and she died in Bamburgh on 20th October 1842.

Grace was buried in the churchyard of St Aidan's Church in Bamburgh. A large canopied stone memorial in her honour was erected a few metres from her grave in 1844. A life size figure of Grace with an oar at her side lies below the canopy. The original sculpture was made of Portland Stone, which did not weather well and it had to be moved inside the church a few years later. The replacement effigy was made of Northumberland stone, which is more durable. Grace shares a grave with her mother (died 1848), father (died 1865) and her siblings Job and Thomasin.

Golden Gate Boat Trips, owned by George Shiel, is the only company licenced to land on Longstone and to offer tours inside the lighthouse. There is an additional charge of £2 for a tour of the lighthouse. It is the only island where dogs may land. The main sailing months are April to October. However the times and frequency of trips varies each day, due to tides and weather conditions. The day I visited in September 2018 we only had about 35 minutes ashore on Longstone. This was just about enough time for a quick look round the lighthouse and a quick walk around the island, which was very small, as it was almost high tide, so there wasn't much of the island above the water. In 2018 the adult boat fare was £15. The whole boat trip lasts about 2 hours, as it also includes a tour of the other Farne Islands. By September most of the nesting seabirds had departed but we saw cormorants and lots of grey seals.