East Maidens Lighthouse

After receiving requests from Larne merchants and Admiral Benjamin Hallowell Carew for a lighthouse to be placed on The Maidens, George Halpin, the Ballast Board's Inspector of Works and Inspector of Lighthouses, inspected the rocks in 1819. He recommended the placement of two lighthouses.

The plans were approved in 1824 and Halpin designed the lighthouses and supervised their construction. Building was completed and the lights switched on by 5 January 1829. The towers were 800 yards apart: the West Tower, on the northern rock, rose 84 feet above sea level and could be seen 13 miles away; the East Tower, on the southern rock, reached 94 feet and was visible from a distance of 14 miles.

An extra light, to illuminate the Highland Rocks, was built into a window in the East Tower in 1889. However, the Engineer to the Commissioners of Irish Lights, William Douglass, in December 1898 recommended the establishment of a lightvessel north of the Highland Rocks. It would house a more powerful light and a fog siren, and coupled with increasing the light and addition of a siren to the East Tower would allow the abandonment of the West Tower. This plan, and a further suggestion in 1899, of a light being built on the Highland Rocks came to nothing. However, the light on the East Tower was improved and put into operation on 12 March 1903; the West Tower was abandoned.

The solitary working lighthouse was now known as Maidens. A racon showing Morse code "M" (--) was added in 1996.[6] The light's nominal range was reduced from 24 to 23 nautical miles in September 2010 and the light characteristic was set at three white flashes every 15 seconds (Fl (3) W 15s). The lighthouse buildings remain in good repair.