A few years ago, we were staying a couple of miles from Start Point lighthouse in South Devon.
One misty evening, we could hear its foghorn sounding for much of the night, or at least so it seemed. The next evening was much the same. It sounded pretty impressive so the following day, we drove down to take a walk and a look round. It sounded even more impressive close up! it wasn't hugely foggy inland but it was misty out to sea. As we approached the lighthouse entrance, a man was just closing the gate and walking to his car, so we asked him if it was ok to to look round. This at first appeared to be a mistake as he looked....well, terrible.
It turned out he was staying in one of the lighthouse cottages that was now a holiday let. He and his family hadn't had any sleep for three nights, had packed up and were off to a hotel. He said the first night they joked about it, the second night was not so great and by the third, they had had enough. We looked in his car and a small sea of sad, haggard faces stared back at us.
(When checking the light house name to write this post, I found a Trinity House article about their holiday lets that said "David Brewer, from Trinity House, believes the sound of the foghorn is all part of the fun of staying in a lighthouse. 'It may be an irritant to some people, but I'm sure most guests will regard it as all part of the experience,' he says". Well, I suggest that there is a breaking point around night three).
