Burnham-on-Sea Lighthouse
Burnham-on-Sea is a small seaside town on the Somerset coast at the southern end of Bridgwater Bay, whose most distinctive feature is an unusual wooden lighthouse built on stilts directly on the beach, a structure that stands as one of the most peculiar and characterful lighthouses in Britain. The Low Lighthouse, as it is known, was built in the early nineteenth century to guide vessels into the mouth of the River Brue and sits on nine wooden legs above the beach, its platform and lantern house elevated above the tidal sands in a design that has more in common with a pier pavilion than a conventional lighthouse tower.
The lighthouse is one of a pair that served Burnham, the other being the High Lighthouse built further inland which provided the second light needed for vessels to take a safe bearing into the channel. The wooden pile structure of the Low Lighthouse represents an engineering response to the soft, muddy character of the Somerset coast, where conventional stone foundations were impractical, and the resulting structure has a character all its own that makes it one of the most photographed minor maritime buildings on the west coast of England.
The town of Burnham-on-Sea faces west across the Bristol Channel toward Wales, and the very low gradient of the intertidal zone means that the sea retreats enormous distances at low tide, exposing a vast expanse of sand and mudflat that can be walked but requires care in relation to the tides. The sunsets over the Bristol Channel and the views toward the Welsh hills across the water can be spectacular, and the combination of the unusual lighthouse, the wide expanse of beach and the Somerset Levels stretching inland gives Burnham a distinctive character.
The Somerset Levels, the extensive low-lying wetland landscape behind the town, provide excellent birdwatching particularly in winter when the flooded fields attract large numbers of wading birds, wildfowl and wintering starling murmurations that can number in the millions.