The Fastnet Rock lighthouse sticks up out of the Atlantic like a finger pointing at the heavens and marks Ireland's most southerly point. It is the tallest and widest lighthouse in Ireland or Great Britain. The rock itself was known as 'the teardrop of Ireland', being the last piece of the country emigrants saw as they sailed for a new life in America. The Irish name, Carraig Aonar (the lonely rock) well describes it, situated 4½ miles from Cape Clear and 12 from Baltimore. The first lighthouse to be built there was finished in 1854 and made of cast iron, but by 1865 the fierce Atlantic waves had swept away part of the rock upon which it stood and it seemed that the tower would not stand up to the weather. In 1896 granite blocks were shipped in from Cornwall to build a new lighthouse. This was not completed and in working order until 1906. The foreman in charge of its construction, James Cavanagh, sometimes stayed on site for a year at a time!