The Great Light, Maritime Mile

The Great Light is a massive, thirteen-ton glass lens that rests under a steel canopy on the edge of the Maritime Mile. It stood for decades inside the Tory Island lighthouse, casting beams twenty miles out to sea for passing ships. When the lighthouse shifted to automated LED lighting in nineteen seventy-eight, this lens became a redundant piece of maritime hardware. It now sits in Belfast, exposed to the elements, as one of the largest lighthouse optics ever constructed by human hands.