A major refurbishment of two of the island’s historic lighthouses is nearing completion.

There’s just one thing missing - the new lights!

The major scheme by Northern Lighthouse Board to refurbish and upgrade Douglas Head and Maughold Head lighthouses began last month, at a cost of £180,000 and £168,000 respectively.

New LED optics are being installed which the NLB says will provide significant savings and require less maintenance. Those at Douglas Head will have a range of 18 nautical miles.

The Stevenson lighthouses have been repainted inside and out and equipment including the lamps fitted when the lighthouses were automated have been removed.

But contractors are still waiting delivery of the new lights from New Zealand which should be installed in the next two or three months.

In the meantime, temporary lights have been set up at both lighthouses, operating at the same frequency but with a reduced range.

NLC chief executive Mike Bullock MBE gave reporters a tour of the work carried out at Douglas Head lighthouse.

He said: ’LED lights provide increased reliability and require less maintenance. They save on our electricity bill, too! Lighthouses are really reliable things - until they are not!’

Douglas Head lighthouse has a mains power supply but a lot of remote rock stations rely on solar power.

The job of keeping an eye of the Manx stations goes to retained lighthouses keeper Fred Fox, who in two months’ time will have worked for the NLB for 44 years.

He started work on the Scottish lights ending up at Rattray Head, off the Aberdeenshire coast, before transferring to the Point of Ayre lighthouse in 1978 and then Maughold Head before going back to the Point of Ayre until it was automated in 1993.

It’s Fred’s job to keep an eye on all the island’s lighthouses, to make sure they’re safe and working as they should.

Generally there are no problems but there is the ’occasional hiccup,’ said Fred, who is 73.

Mr Bullock, who gave a talk on the NLB entitled ’More than Lighthouses’ at Loch Promenade Methodist Church Hall in Douglas last Wednesday, explained these impressive coastal structures still have a vital role to play, even in this age of GPS.

He said: ’They are a visual reference. GPS is fairly vulnerable. If there is a solar flare it can go off. It can be jammed and of course not every sailor has GPS.’

The NLB has an estate of 207 lights, of which 80 are traditional lighthouses like those at Douglas and Maughold.