Knotbrook Taylor is an award-winning poet who is originally from England and is now living in Scotland. The Museum of Scottish Lighthouses commissioned him to write a book of Scottish lighthouse poems in 2010, and he was the poet in residence for a time at the museum. His experimental photography has also received wide acclaim. In this live stream episode Knotbrook reads a number of his poems about Scottish lighthouses and discusses his own experiences traveling the coasts of the UK.

The video can be seen here.

Jim Claflin, who is based in Massachusetts, is a recognized authority on antiques of the U.S. Lighthouse Service, Life-Saving Service, Revenue Cutter Service and early Coast Guard. Jim has specialized in antiques of this kind since the early 1990s. He is the owner of Kenrick A Claflin & Son Nautical Antiques, which has been in business since 1956.

Jim specializes in out-of-print books, documents, postcards, photographs, maps and charts, engravings, lithographs, uniforms and insignia, tools, lamps, lens apparatus, equipment and apparatus and much more. You can see his latest offerings at lighthouseantiques.net. He’s also the author of ten books on lighthouse and life saving history, and he has served as a volunteer “keeper” at Race Point Light Station on Cape Cod.

This is part two of a two part interview with Richard Cummins, a native of Ireland who worked as a lighthouse keeper in that country for a decade. This is an edited version of a conversation first heard on the podcast in 2020. Richard spent time as a keeper at the very famous Fastnet Rock Lighthouse; at Hook Head, one of the oldest operating lighthouses in the world; and some other well known light stations – more than 20 in all.

In this part of the interview we talk about what it was like to live at isolated lighthouses, and also about Richard’s more recent career as a photographer and an acclaimed builder of ships in bottles.

This is the audio from a live streaming episode on June 3, 2026.

Seguin Island Light Station is about two and a half miles off of the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine. The establishment of a light station on Seguin was approved by president George Washington in 1793, and the buildings were completed in 1796. The 53-foot stone tower that still stands was constructed in 1857 along with a duplex keepers’ house. A new first-order Fresnel lens was installed, and that lens remains in operation today.

The light was automated in 1985 and the keepers were removed. Concerned local citizens founded the Friends of Seguin Island Light Station in 1986. In February 1998, under the Maine Lights Program, ownership of the property was transferred to the group. There are two guests in the episode. Chris Hall was the registrar and curator of exhibits at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath and he’s now the historian for FOSILS. Tip Koehler is a retired Naval architect with 41 years in naval combatant design, manufacturing, and testing on Bath built ships. and is the vice president of the Friends of Seguin Island Light Station.

Here is the live stream:

Join host Jeremy D’Entremont and guest co-host Joy Tubby as they chat with Gerald Butler, a longtime Irish lighthouse keeper and author. This is the audio from a live stream on May 28.

Click here to see the video of the live stream.

This is an edited version of a conversation that was first heard in December 2020. The guest is Richard Cummins, who was a keeper at Irish lighthouses for about a decade, ending in 1989. He spent time at the famous Fastnet Lighthouse; at Hook Head, one of the oldest operating lighthouses in the world, and others – more than 20 in all.

This is part one of two parts. Part 2 will be in a future episode of Light Hearted Lite.

The St. Johns River Lighthouse is a decommissioned lighthouse located on the grounds of Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida. First lighted in 1859, it was decommissioned in 1929 and replaced with a lightship. The lightship in turn was replaced by the 1954 Art Deco style St. Johns Lighthouse, which is also on Naval Station Mayport.

The Mayport Lighthouse Association or MLA is a volunteer-driven nonprofit organization dedicated to saving and restoring St. Johns River Lighthouse, as well as safeguarding the cultural, historical, and maritime heritage of Mayport Village. Our guest, Elizabeth Boggs, is the vice president of the Mayport Lighthouse Association. Elizabeth was recently awarded a “Guiding Light” award for her volunteer work at the St. Augustine Lighthouse.

Jonathon Gaare, executive director of the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society in New York, last joined us in December 2024. In this episode, Jonathon updates us on preservation projects at the lighthouse, the exciting events lined up for Fire Island Light Station’s 200th anniversary this year, and some exciting historical finds.

The current lighthouse at Fire Island, built in 1858, is a 168-foot brick tower. Visitors get to climb the tower for an amazing view, and there’s a museum in the keeper’s house. Another big draw is the separate building that was constructed to exhibit the lighthouse’s old first-order Fresnel lens. The Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society was formed in 1982 to preserve the site.