saving lives since 1561

“If you close your eyes, no lighthouse can help you!”
Mehmet Murat ildan

Kullen’s Lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse location in Scandinavia founded 1561 by the Danish king Fredrik II. In those days, it was a “Parrot lighthouse” with an iron casket 20 feet above the ground.

The Kullen Lighthouse (Swedish: Kullens fyr) is an operational lighthouse in Scania, located by the mouth of Öresund, at the point of Kullaberg peninsula, in Höganäs, on the south-west coast of Sweden.

Kullen is one of the most prominent landmarks along the Swedish coastline, and with its 1000 Watt electric bulb in a huge lens house, also the most powerful lighthouse in Scandinavia, overlooking one of the world’s most heavily travelled waters.

The lighthouse is 15 meters tall and its focal plane is located 78.5 meters (260 feet) above sea level making it the highest located lighthouse in Sweden. Every 5 seconds, the Kullen Lighthouse flashes white for 0.3 seconds with 27 nautical miles reach.

1563 there was a new stone tower with 12 candlelight as a source for light but already 1585 it was replaced with a covered lantern and from 16candle light used for light.

During the centuries wood, candle lights, coal, oil, kerosene and electricity have been used to send out a beam that reached 50K as a minimum.

And has three large 1 order Fresnel lenses in a lense house that rotates four times per minute, hence giving twelve flashes per minute.  Based on Augustin-Jean Fresnel’s design, the lense house was constructed by the French company Barbier & Barnard and delivered in the summer of 1900.

It consists of three lenses of 2.58 m in diameter, weighs 6 metric tons and originally rotated on a base filled with 50 liters of mercury. The mercury was replaced in September 2016 with two bearings. The Kullen lighthouse was automated in 1979 and is remote-controlled by the Swedish Maritime Administration’s check at Norrköping. The last keeper left in 1996.

For over 1000 years, there has been some kind of light spot to guide seafarers.

It’s a beautiful spot, it was my first visit on Wednesday. It is located in Kullaberg Nature Reserve. Very popular destinations for all ages and the view from there is breathtaking. 

On Wednesday it was a perfect day to visit and I wish I could have stayed for the sunset, but there wouldn’t be any bus connections with Mölle around 9-10pm. So I had been stacked up on the top of the mountain for the night and I would had got a fantastic sunrise the next morning for the same price. 

I wanted to visit the lighthouse, but walking up there from Mölle: NO CHANCE! … so when I saw there is a bus goes up to the lighthouse, instead of taking the Helsingborg bus I jumped on the lighthouse one instead. Glad I did. The lighthouse is approximately three kilometres to the south-east is the harbour town of Mölle.

Loads of people as arriving as I waited for the bus to go back home … some had picnic boxes. There are special BBQ areas and plenty of picnic tables with seatings. 

Kullaberg is famous for its wild honeysuckle, but it was gowning in the ravines and too far away (and dangerous) for me to get a good close up. It smells so lovely.

I will be back a gorgeous summer day next year …. and thanks to my summer travel card and Skånetrafiken (our county’s public transport company) it will be possible … and maybe even they will change the timetable so there will be a bus returning to Mölle so late that I will be able to enjoy the sunset.