Arbroath Signal Tower Museum

Signal Tower Museum is located near Arbroath’s picturesque and busy harbour, in a complex of buildings originally used as the shore station and family accommodation for the Bell Rock Lighthouse. Built in 1813, Signal Tower served the lighthouse until 1955.

Both the lighthouse and the Signal Tower were built, for the Northern Lighthouse Board, by Robert Stevenson, founder of the famous Stevenson dynasty of lighthouse builders.

The Bell Rock Lighthouse still stands, 11 miles off-shore from Arbroath, on a dangerous semi-sunken reef. More than 200 years after its construction, the Bell Rock is Britain’s oldest surviving rock lighthouse.

Within the Signal Tower Museum, models, multi-media displays and historic objects explain the history of the lighthouse and allow visitors to explore the dangers of the sea. Stories of Arbroath’s fishing and maritime industries are interwoven with tales of Arbroath Smokies and the pirate Ralph the Rover.