“There was only one point where a tower could be placed, and this was so exposed that the safe handling of men and material constituted a grave responsibility.”

It was necessary to erect a tower one hundred and thirty feet high; “the loftiest and weightiest work of its character that had ever been contemplated up to this time....

“The Atlantic swell, which rendered landing on the ridge precarious and hazardous, did not permit the men to be housed upon a floating home, as had been the practice in the early days of the Bell Rock tower.  In order to permit the work to go forward as uninterruptedly as the sea would allow, a peculiar barrack was erected.  It was a house on stilts, the legs being sunk firmly into the rock, with the living quarters perched some fifty feet up in the air.

“Residence in this tower was eerie.  The men climbed the ladder and entered a small room, which served the purposes of kitchen, living-room, and parlor....

“When a storm was raging, the waves, as they combed over the rock, shook the legs violently and scurried under the floor in seething foam.  Now and again a roller, rising higher than its fellows, broke upon the rock and sent a mass of water against the flooring to hammer at the door.  Above the living-room were the sleeping quarters, high and dry, save when a shower of spray fell upon the roof and walls like heavy hail....  The men, however, were not perturbed.  Sleeping, even under such conditions, was far preferable to doubtful rest in a bunk upon an attendant vessel, rolling and pitching with the motion of the sea.  They had had a surfeit of such experience ... while the barrack was under erection.

“For two years it withstood the seas without incident, and the engineer and men came to regard the eyrie as safe as a house on shore.  But one night the little colony received a shock.  The angry Atlantic got one or two of its trip-hammer blows well home, and smashed the structure to fragments.  Fortunately, at the time it was untenanted.”

No time was lost in rebuilding the barrack and this time it withstood all tests until it was torn down after Skerryvore was finished.

“While the foundations were being prepared, and until the barrack was constructed, the men ran other terrible risks every morning and night landing upon and leaving the polished surface of the reef.  Five months during the summer was the working season, but even then many days and weeks were often lost owing to the swell being too great to permit the rowing boat to come alongside.  The engineer relates that the work was ’a good lesson in the school of patience,’ because the delays were frequent and galling, while every storm which got up and expended its rage upon the reef left its mark indelibly among the engineer’s stock in trade.  Cranes and other materials were swept away as if they were corks; lashings, no matter how strong, were snapped like pack-threads.