The cliffs at Kirn o' Slettans contain volcanic blocks and bombs - fragments that blasted out of a volcano and built up to form a volcanic cone.
Below and east of Eshaness lighthouse you will find a blowhole called Kirn o' Slettans. Take care, the hole is deep and the rocks are slippery.
The rock around the Kirn o’ Slettans is agglomerate, built up from volcanic blocks and bombs - lumps of lava and hot rock thought to have been blasted from a side vent in the Eshaness volcano by explosive eruptions 395 million years ago. Today water rather than rock is blasted out of the blowhole in rough seas.
Eshaness Lighthouse was built in 1929 by David and Charles Stevenson, of the Stevenson family of lighthouse engineers. It was built to replace a temporary structure which warned ships to avoid running aground on the Ve Skerries – a group of islands about 10 miles from the Eshaness shore.
The light flashes white every 12 seconds and has a visibility of up to 25 nautical miles. The light was fully automated in 1974 and the lighthouse keeper's cottage now serves as holiday accommodation. Some of the rocks at Kirn o Slettans are stained with white carbide waste from the chemical process that produced acetylene gas for the light in the days before it was electrified.
