Engineer discovers 132-year-old message in a bottle at Scottish lighthouse

Mechanical engineer Ross Russell from the Northern Lighthouse Board has made a unique discovery inside the walls of the Corsewall Lighthouse in Scotland. During an inspection at the most northerly point of the Rhins of Galloway, Russell spotted a bottle lodged deep within the lighthouse's walls, despite it being out of reach. The team retrieved the bottle using a device made from a rope and a broom handle.

"I was the first person in 132 years to touch the bottle. Such a thing can happen only once in a person's life," Ross Russell told the BBC. "It felt special to find a message that was written about the same devices we are now working with," he said.

The 20-centimeter-long bottle, which has an unusual convex base preventing it from standing upright, is made of coarse glass filled with small air bubbles. It is believed the bottle previously contained oil. The cork stopper had expanded over time and stuck to the glass, and the wire holding it in place had rusted. The men had to cut the top part of the cork and carefully drill into it to access the contents.

They waited for lighthouse keeper Barry Miller, aged 77, to arrive before attempting to open the bottle. Miller's hands trembled with excitement as he opened it. "It was very exciting. It was like meeting our colleagues from the past," he said. "It was like touching them. They were part of our team. We were all there sharing what they wrote because it was tangible, and you could see their handwriting," Miller added.

Inside the bottle was a letter dated September 4, 1892, written with a quill pen and ink. The letter included the names of three engineers who installed a new type of light in the lighthouse's 30-foot tower and the names of the lighthouse's three keepers. "The writers of the message must have known that the bottle would not be found for a long time," Barry Miller told BBC Scotland, "It was as if colleagues from the past were present."

The bottle and its message are now being preserved in Edinburgh.

The effort to retrieve and open the bottle required careful handling due to its age and fragile condition. The cork had expanded and stuck to the glass, and the rusted wire added to the challenge. The team used makeshift tools to ensure the bottle and its contents remained intact.

Sources: BBC News, Asharq Al-Awsat, Helsingin Sanomat

This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq