Coquet Island

Coquet Island /ˈkoʊkət/ is a small island of about 6 hectares (15 acres), situated 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) off Amble on the Northumberland coast, northeast England.

Bird reserve

The island is owned by the Duke of Northumberland. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds manage the island as a bird reserve, for its important seabird colonies.

The most numerous species is the puffin, with over 18,000 pairs nesting in 2002, but the island is most important for the largest colony of the endangered roseate tern in Britain, which, thanks to conservation measures including the provision of nestboxes to protect the nests from gulls and bad weather, has risen to 92 pairs in 2005. Other nesting birds include sandwich tern, common tern, Arctic tern, black-legged kittiwake, fulmar, three gull species, and eider duck.

The island is uninhabited in winter, but seasonal wardens are present throughout the summer to protect the nesting birds. Landing on Coquet Island for the general public is prohibited, but local boating companies from Amble sail close up to the island in good weather throughout the summer, allowing visitors to get good views of the puffins and roseate terns.

Coquet Lighthouse

Coquet Lighthouse

The lighthouse
Location	Coquet Island Northumberland England
Coordinates	55°20′2″N 1°32′23.2″W
Constructed	1841
Construction	sandstone tower
Automated	1990
Height	22 m (72 ft)
Shape	square prism tower with balcony and lantern
Markings	unpainted lower tower, white upper tower and lantern
Operator	Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (Coquet Island Preserve)
Fog signal	one 3 second blast every 30s.
Light
Focal height	25 m (82 ft)
Light source	solar power
Intensity	white: 155,000 candela red: 21,830 candela
Range	white: 19 nmi (35 km) red: 15 nmi (28 km)
Characteristic	Fl (4) WR 20s.

Coquet Island also holds the remaining structure of a medieval monastery on the south western shore, which was largely incorporated into the 19th-century lighthouse and lighthouse keepers' cottages. Coquet Lighthouse was built by Trinity House in 1841 at a cost of £3,268.

James Walker designed the lighthouse, which is a white square tower of sandstone, with walls more than one metre thick, surrounded by a turreted parapet. The first keeper at Coquet Lighthouse was William Darling, the elder brother of Grace Darling. The lighthouse is now automatic with no resident keeper.

See also

• List of lighthouses in England
• The Farne Islands; another important bird reserve about 30 km to the north.
• Henry of Coquet (12th century) - Danish hermit and miracleworking saint who lived on this island.

External links

• Trinity House
• Tide times for Coquet Island from the BBC and Easytide.
• History of Coquet Island. (Modified from "A History of Northumberland", volume V, by John Crawford Hodgson. Published 1899).

Nautical chart «Coquet Island Lighthouse» (1875)