While working on a renovation project at the Corsewall Lighthouse in Scotland, engineers uncovered a 132-year-old message in a bottle, and it had a surprising connection to their own work. Ross Russell, a 36-year-old engineer on the team, was in disbelief upon discovering the bottle hidden in a wall cavity of the historic lighthouse, which dates back to 1817.

Russell and his colleagues were refurbishing the lighthouse when they found the bottle, which contained a handwritten note from September 1892. The note was penned by the engineers and lighthouse keepers of that time, detailing their work installing a new Fresnel lens—exactly the same project the modern crew was currently undertaking. The note read: “This lantern was erected by James Wells Engineer, John Westwood Millwright, James Brodie Engineer, David Scott Labourer, of the firm of James Milne & Son Engineers, Milton House Works, Edinburgh… relighted on Thursday night 15th Sept. 1892.”

The engineers who wrote the note had just completed a labor-intensive project that took the entire summer, and they sealed the note in the bottle and hid it in the wall. The crew in 2025 found it while working on the same equipment. This coincidence astonished the team, with Russell remarking on how surreal it felt to be working on the same equipment as the engineers from over a century ago.

Lighthouse keeper Barry Miller, who was part of the renovation team, shared the discovery with the group, reading the message aloud. The find felt like a direct communication from the past, as the same kind of lens was being installed. Euan Murray, a descendant of one of the 1892 lighthouse keepers, was also amazed by the connection and reflected on how the lighthouse still plays a vital role in maritime navigation today.

Inspired by the discovery, the Corsewall team plans to continue the tradition and leave their own message in a bottle hidden in the same wall cavity, creating a bridge between past and future lighthouse keepers.