Work to restore Guernsey's Castle Breakwater lighthouse nearly at its end
ITV Channel's Roisin Gauson visits Guernsey's Castle Breakwater lighthouse ahead of the summer season when restorative works will end
Work to restore Guernsey's Castle Breakwater lighthouse is nearing completion ahead of the summer season.
It's undergoing renovations after years of wind and waves took their toll - a project that harbour bosses say has been challenging.
"It's very exposed," says Martyn Stanfield of Guernsey Ports.
"With the scaffold around, it helps protect everything while you are trying to work here, but at times with the weather, the scaffold does move.
"So people don't want to work down here for safety and that's put delays in things and trying to do things in the winter months as well so that we can have it open for the summer period."
The lighthouse has welcomed seafarers to the island since the 1800s.
Retired harbourmaster Peter Guille says the structure was originally powered by mains gas.
He said: "The strength of the wind through the top of it used to regularly put the light out and so the harbourmaster asked the States to provide somebody to keep an eye on it properly so that it could be re-lit at the earliest opportunity."
A decision was never made on this but the lighthouse continues to guide ships by LED lighting.
The work is expected to be completed within a month.
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