A £425,000 overhaul of the Signal Tower Museum will benefit Arbroath for years to come, it has been claimed.
Councillor Jim Millar said the investment in the museum would pay off by boosting tourism and the local economy.
The Signal Tower at Beacon Green, built as the lighthouse’s shore base, housed the lighthouse-keepers’ families and the keepers themselves when they were on shore leave.
The refurbishment is an integral part of Arbroath’s Year of the Light celebration of the Bell Rock Lighthouse’s 200th anniversary.
“One of the reasons we are pushing this so hard and the council is investing so much money is to try and capatalise on the worldwide interest in the Bell Rock and its history,” said Mr Millar.
“Arbroath will benefit from this investment for years to come. The Signal Tower Museum needed investment, it was very tired and dated and we have given it a focus now that it didn’t really have before.
“When I first mooted this, the idea was to bring it in line with the way museums are evolving elsewhere and give it a strong focus to attract visitors. It’s important that we share our history with other people.”
The keys were handed back to Angus Council’s neighbourhood services department by contractor Muirfield Contracts at a ceremony on Monday. The council will now begin installing exhibits, new and old, with reopening anticipated by early summer.
“I am delighted the work is completed,” said Mr Millar.
Harry Simpson, who chairs the Year of the Light steering committee, said the tower represented an important lifeline between the lighthouse keepers on duty and the mainland. Each morning, a copper signalling ball would be raised from the top of the tower.
Mr Simpson said the signal had other uses, too. If a keeper’s wife was pregnant, he was not given leave to come ashore for the birth.
“When the baby was born, the signal was a pair of trousers flown from the flag pole for a boy, a little dress for a girl,” he said.