Coastal scene with a rocky shoreline and ocean. A lighthouse and small building sit atop the grassy cliff under a blue sky with scattered clouds. Birds fly above the water, and the sun casts a warm glow.

Todhead Lighthouse

Aberdeenshire, Scotland

2015 — 2017

Client Private Client

Buildings · Conservation & Retrofit

Through sensitive intervention the precisely built 19th century lighthouse at Todhead Point has become a compact family home. In its tower, the focal point is the installation of a glazed floor to the lamp room, transforming it into a living space from which to watch the storms roll up the coast – the only major alteration in this section of the building, on top of critical restoration work.

A lighthouse with a black top standing on a grassy hill under a cloudy sky. Adjacent to the lighthouse is a white building. The scene is calm and illuminated by soft sunlight.

The lighthouse’s blockhouse, at the tower’s foot, has been converted into the main living spaces, and extended behind the seaward wall to form bedrooms and bathrooms. The connection between the blockhouse and extension has been given an inset flight of steps leading up to a new roof terrace that runs across both roofs, old and new, while the new building is separated from the buttressed seaward wall itself by a ribbon of frameless glass.