Night survey
We come after dark, photograph every outdoor light, measure sky brightness with a sky quality meter and light levels at your boundary. You get a written survey with photos within 7 days.
Light the yard. Keep the stars.
Cutoff surveys and redesigns outdoor lighting for farms, campsites, villages and homes around the Northumberland Dark Sky Park. Your paths stay lit. The glare and the wasted light go.
312 sites surveyed since 2016. 4,180 lights re-aimed, shielded or replaced.
High Shield FarmBlackcleugh CampingThornhope Parish MeetingLowgate BarnRede Valley Holiday CottagesFalstone Village HallHareshaw FisherySimonburn GlampingElsdon Old School
The sky over the farm never changed. What the lights let you see did.
95%
less electricity at High Shield Farm. 1,312 kWh a year down to 68.
3,680 stars in view from the yard, up from 190
0 lm
sent above the horizon by any light we fit. Every fitting is full cutoff.
21.62 mag/arcsec², the sky reading at High Shield before and after. Same sky, different eyes.
“We can see the Milky Way from the back door again, and the yard is easier to work in.”
Farm
BeforeAfter
High Shield Farmnear Bellingham
190 → 3,680Stars in view
4,086 → 0 lmLight above 90°
1,312 → 68kWh a year
6 → 5Lights
Campsite
BeforeAfter
Blackcleugh CampingUpper Coquetdale
330 → 3,890Stars in view
3,224 → 0 lmLight above 90°
644 → 49kWh a year
4 → 4Lights
Parish
BeforeAfter
ThornhopeSouth Tynedale
210 → 2,600Stars in view
5,850 → 0 lmLight above 90°
4,144 → 488kWh a year
14 → 14Lights
BeforeAfter
High Shield Farmnear Bellingham
190 → 3,680Stars in view
4,086 → 0 lmLight above 90°
1,312 → 68kWh a year
6 → 5Lights
Campsite
BeforeAfter
Blackcleugh CampingUpper Coquetdale
330 → 3,890Stars in view
3,224 → 0 lmLight above 90°
644 → 49kWh a year
4 → 4Lights
Parish
BeforeAfter
ThornhopeSouth Tynedale
210 → 2,600Stars in view
5,850 → 0 lmLight above 90°
4,144 → 488kWh a year
14 → 14Lights
Services
Four things we do, usually in this order. You can stop after any of them.
Light that stops at the horizon.
Lighting plan
Which fittings to keep, re-aim, shield or replace, where each one goes, how bright, what colour and when it switches off. A drawn plan and a parts list any electrician can price.
Fitting and re-aiming
Our electrician does the work: new heads, shields, timers and motion sensors. Most farms take a day. We come back after dark and measure again.
Dark Sky Place support
For parishes and estates working towards a DarkSky International designation: a lighting inventory, a lighting management plan and a year of sky readings.
One farmyard near Bellingham, on one night in October, before and after we changed its six lights. Scroll to change them.
21:40- 01As we found it
- 02Shielded and aimed down
- 03Warmer and dimmer
- 04Off when nobody is out
One farmyard,
one night.
Stars in view190
Light above 90°4,086 lm
Power drawn320 W
Sky reading21.62
Six lights, three of them pointed at you. Your eyes close down to the glare and almost every star goes.
[{"stars":190,"up":4086,"w":320},{"stars":1830,"up":0,"w":220},{"stars":3120,"up":0,"w":35},{"stars":3680,"up":0,"w":4}]
What clients say
What clients say
“We can see the Milky Way from the back door again, and the yard is easier to work in.”
Jean RobsonHigh Shield Farm“Guests used to mention the floodlight in their reviews. Now they mention the stars.”
Mark HedleyBlackcleugh Camping“Fourteen lamps, one evening meeting, and no complaints since.”
Anne Pattinsonclerk to Thornhope Parish Meeting“Our evening photographs got better the week the floods came down.”
Hannah OrdLowgate Barn
How it works
From a phone call to a darker yard.
- 01
15-minute call
You tell us what lights you have and what bothers you. We tell you if a survey is worth it.
- 02
Night survey
Two of us visit after dark, photograph every light and take sky and boundary readings.
- 03
Plan and fixed quote
A drawn plan within two weeks: every fitting, its brightness, colour and switching.
- 04
Fit and measure again
Our electrician fits it. We come back on a clear night and take the same readings.
Studio
Four of us, all living under dark skies.
We work from Hexham and live within 30 miles of Kielder. Each card shows the sky over one of our villages, and the reading we took there.
Prices include VAT and survey travel within 40 miles of Hexham. Fitting is quoted fixed before any work starts.
Home
A house, up to 6 lights
£180£620survey and plantypical, fitted
- Night survey
- Plan with parts list
- Advice on planning conditions
Farm and business
Yards and premises, up to 20 lights
£540£2,400survey and plantypical, fitted
- Night survey with boundary readings
- Plan, timers and sensors
- Re-measure after the work
Campsite and venue
Guest paths and buildings, up to 50 lights
£1,250£5,800survey and plantypical, fitted
- Survey on a busy night
- Path, pitch and building plan
- Wording for your listing
- Re-measure after the work
Parish and estate
Streetlights and estates
£2,900Quotedsurvey and planwith the council or contractor
- Lamp inventory
- Lighting management plan
- A year of sky readings
- Dark Sky Place paperwork
Notes
Short reads on light at night.
Glare, not brightness, is why your yard feels dark
A floodlight in view shrinks your pupils and fogs your eyes. Everything outside its pool goes black.
Why we fit 2700 K, and amber on paths
Same street, same lumens, two colour temperatures. What changes, and what does not.
Living next to a Dark Sky Park
Northumberland has one of the darkest protected skies in England. What that asks of the farms and villages around it.
Common questions
Safety, cost, planning and what happens on the night. If yours is not here, ring Ruth on 01632 960 418.
What people ask before we come out.
Yes. We light where people walk and work, at the level the job needs. Glare is what makes a yard hard to see in: with the bright source shielded, your eyes can see past the pool of light to the gate.
Often not. On most surveys a third or more of the fittings can stay, re-aimed, shielded or with a warmer lamp.
It is the colour temperature of the light. Lower numbers look warmer. DarkSky International recommends 3000 K or lower for outdoor light; we usually fit 2700 K, and amber 2200 K on paths.
Usually by a lot, because the new lights are dimmer and switch off when nobody is out. High Shield Farm went from about 1,312 kWh a year to about 68.
Not to replace lights on a house in most cases, but some planning permissions for barns, holiday lets and campsites carry lighting conditions. We check yours before we draw the plan.
Northumberland, the Scottish Borders, north Cumbria and County Durham. Survey travel is included within 40 miles of Hexham.
Two of us arrive about an hour after sunset and stay around two hours. We need to switch every light on and off once, so someone has to be home.