I just received this email from The Orfordness Lighthouse Trust.
Looks like it might be the last year to visit the lighthouse in it's current state/position.
Any interest in any of the dates?
"Thank you for your patience in waiting for the us to announce this year's Visit Dates... we are confident the worst of the winter storms are now safely out the way and we are delighted to publish our visit dates, which are listed below.
How is the Lighthouse?
A question we Trustees of Orfordness Lighthouse are asked so frequently! The winter of 2018/2019 has thankfully not been quite as severe as last Winter, but it still had its moments. The beach in front of the lighthouse has retreated so much over the year that every high tide is in contact with the defences, and so has an effect. This effect is sometimes positive, bringing a bit more shingle up on the tide. But more often it is negative, taking shingle away and further undermining the Victorian water tanks and the bungalow cottage. The beach is now so narrow and steep in front of the lighthouse that we have not been able to add to the defences this year. There simply is not enough shingle to fill the rubble sacks, and no stable platform on which to place the "sausage rolls".
So it is the beginning of the end. This year while having the lighthouse open to visitors we will be planning its the dismantlement and the saving of the artifcacts. Sad yes, but through generous donations and hard work by volunteers we have kept her open to 100s of visitors when it was predicted it would be in a ruinous state by 2015/16 when decommissioned in 2013.
Orfordness Lighthouse Trust remains committed to keeping the Lighthouse standing where it is for as long as possible, and remaining alive to the constant threat of the sea. It remains our intention to dismantle the Lighthouse and rebuild a replica elsewhere on the Ness. If you want to hear more about this plan, we'd recommend coming on one of our Open Days and we'll be glad to tell you more about it.
How Do We Book to Visit?
To book your places on any of the visits please email us at orfordnesslighthouse@gmail.com with the number in your party and your preferred date. If you could include your name in the subject line, that would be very helpful, thank you. You can find a link to our email address at the bottom of this message.
Full details on how the visits run are listed on the Visits Page of our website here. We will also send a house keeping email the day before the visit with last minute house keeping (which will mainly be about the weather!)
2019 VISIT DATES:
14th April
5th May
2nd June
21st July
25th August
22nd September
*There may be a further visit in October, TBC subject to demand and volunteer availability*"