MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar has today announced that Irish lighthouses will be the focus of a new €2.5 million tourism and job creation initiative.

The project is being funded by the European Union and will eventually see up to 20 lighthouses, north and south, opened up to tourists. Today the department said each of the country’s 75 operating lighthouses have accommodation attached – in some cases up to five houses – and this can now be offered to tourists.

The first phase will involve the following five lighthouses:

St. John’s Point Lighthouse, Co Donegal

(Image: Nick/Flickr)

Fanad Head Lighthouse, Co Donegal

(Telping/Flickr)

Rathlin West Lighthouse, Rathlin Island

(Image: Theyoungones1994/Flickr)

Blackhead Lighthouse, Co Antrim

(Image: Wikimedia Commons)

St. John’s Point Lighthouse, Co Down

(Image: Tony Bowden/Flickr)

The project will see 60 jobs supported during the construction period and ten new jobs created when facilities become operational.

Read: The head of the CIA is bringing this piece of Kilteevan turf back to the White House>

Read: Is ice-cream part of the tourism industry?>