Start Point Lighthouse, South Devon, England

© Guy Edwardes/Minden Picture

Celebrating lighthouses. International Lighthouse Weekend

To mark International Lighthouse Weekend, we're on England's southwest coast, where Start Point Lighthouse looks out over the turbulent waters of the English Channel. The lighthouse is perched upon a rugged cliff on one of the country's most exposed peninsulas, which stretches nearly a mile into the sea in the county of Devon. Built in 1836, the elegant lighthouse was designed by civil engineer James Walker in the Gothic style, as seen in its castle-like parapet. It has undergone many changes since then and more accommodation was added in the 1870s, but no lighthouse keepers live there now—it has been automated since 1993.