IT shone for almost two centuries as a beacon of both hope and warning for fishermen and RAF pilots on one of the most treacherous stretches of the Scottish coast. But now, a month after the lights were finally dimmed on the iconic Covesea Skerries Lighthouse at Lossiemouth, the building is the focus of plans for one of Scotland’s most unusual community buy-outs.

The business association in the once bustling Moray fishing town is seeking public support for ambitious plans to buy the redundant navigational aid for the benefit of the town and to turn it into a heritage centre celebrating the importance of both the fishing industry and the Royal Air Force in the history of the town. The lighthouse, designed by Alan Stevenson, a member of the Stevenson engineering dynasty and uncle of the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, was erected on a headland overlooking the skerries rocks in 1846, following demands for action from mariners after 16 vessels were lost during a storm in the Moray Firth in November 1826.