Lighthouses struck by lightning?

Question

Do lighthouses get struck by lightning often? What is the effect on them when they do?

Answer 1

Because they must be visible from many directions, lighthouses are always on a promontory and therefore exposed to lightning. But they are always protect from lightning by a wire, often leading directly to the sea water.

It is quite paradoxal but the sea water is the best 'earth' one can have. All lighthouses doubled with a radio coastal station have the 'earth' of their radio going in the sea.

As a radio amateur, often operating my radio from my sailboat, I have an excellent setup with the earth end of the radio going in the water through the iron keel.

Answer 2

I don't have any statistics, but I would imagine they do, just like any other tall and isolated structure (the Eiffel Tower in Paris, for example, gets struck an average of 25 times a year). They would be built with a lightning conductor on top though, which provides a low-resistance pathway to ground, so the building itself would be unaffected.