Gazing across the tempestuous Irish Sea, Corsewall Lighthouse has guided sailors crossing between Scotland and Ireland since 1817. Luckily for us, its light was automated in the 90s, which means the rest of the property has been converted into an 11-room B&B and restaurant. It’s a great base for immersing yourself in Scotland’s wild landscape. Days are best spent gawping at Ailsa Craig across the Firth of Clyde, spotting birds and sea life, or heading to the nearby Galloway Forest Park, one of the UK’s best spots for stargazing.

Children of the 80s might recognise St Anthony’s Lighthouse; it was in the opening credits of Jim Henson’s TV series Fraggle Rock. The lighthouse is set on the craggy tip of the Roseland Peninsula, so you’ll have to clamber down a 300m footpath from the cliffs above for a few days of sweet seclusion in its two-bedroom Sally Port Cottage. It has a country-style kitchen, wood burner and a brilliant observatory room – if these don’t keep you at base, St Mawes and the Lost Gardens of Heligan are within a half an hour drive.

In 1999 this 19th-century lighthouse was hauled 17m away from the edge of the crumbling chalk cliffs on which it stands. The engineering of the operation was pretty impressive – in fact, builders left the lighthouse on special foundations that mean it can be moved further back as erosion continues in the future. Belle Tout has operated as a B&B for just over a decade now, drawing guests with its whitewashed accommodation and views across the English Channel. The Keeper’s Loft is pokey, but perhaps the most authentic experience. From here, walk west along the Seven Sisters or east, over Beachy Head to Eastbourne.

You know a lighthouse is chic when it gets a shout out from estate agent The Modern House, purveyor of #propertyporn. Before it was converted to residential use by architect Studio Mackereth (note the curved bunk beds), this 18th-century lighthouse was mentioned in Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and served as a Second World War lookout. Today, a modernist extension opens to a garden designed by Chelsea Flower Show winner Chris Moss – though you’d be forgiven for spending most of your time ogling panoramas from the Lantern Room.

Four guestrooms are arranged around a wishing well in this
19th-century lighthouse at the mouth of the River Usk, where the
water completes its journey from the Black Mountains to the Bristol
Channel. Relaxation is the raison d’être here: book in for on-site
reflexology, a Swedish massage, hydrotherapy treatments or life
coaching, or spot cows and wild horses from the roof garden’s hot
tub. Whovians take note: there’s a Dalek and a TARDIS here too.

Set 20km off the North Devon coast, the secluded granite outcrop
of Lundy is often veiled in mist, meaning that many ships have been
wrecked on its jagged shores. And what do shipwrecks mean?
Lighthouses. There are three of them on the island’s relatively
small 1,000 acres. The Old Light (abandoned in 1897) is our
favourite, split into two north-facing Lower and Upper
self-catering apartments, sleeping four and five people
respectively. Don’t have a head for heights? Book the pocket-sized
granite keeper’s store nearby. Sleeps one.

The newest of the lighthouses listed here and flanked by what is perhaps the most dramatic of coastlines; Strathy Point was built in 1958 as Scotland’s first electrically operated lighthouse. Since its automation in 1997, its surrounding buildings have been divvied up and revamped as several away-from-the-fray crash pads, of which The Bothy is a great bolthole for two. (Note that while there aren’t pubs or restaurants in the vicinity, Tesco will deliver groceries here.) Driving the North Coast 500? This is an ideal pit stop.

At a vertiginous 40m, this black-and-yellow-striped lighthouse
is one of the tallest on the entire Irish coast. It was used as a
marker on a test run for the Titanic in 1912, before its light was
automated in the 80s. Now maintained by the Commissioners of Irish
Lights, its two homely keeper’s cottages – Ketch and Sloop – make a great base for exploring the
north-east. Hike by Strangford Lough or head into Belfast, where
lighthouse fanatics can also admire at The Great
Light.