Under the hammer
You've spent the summer finding them.
You've photographed them, ticked them off your map, and now you have the chance to take one home!
Following 10 weeks making a colourful addition to Plymouth's streets, the large and roaming St Luke's Guiding Lights sculptures will go under the hammer at a special Grand Auction on Thursday 1 October 2026.
The large and roaming lighthouse sculptures will be sold to the highest bidders, with all profits from their sale going directly to support the compassionate care provided by St Luke's Hospice Plymouth.
The expected reserve price for each lighthouse is £3,000, although the final prices could be considerably higher.
If St Luke's previous sculpture trail is anything to go by, there could be some serious competition.
In 2019, the Elmer's Big Parade auction saw 40 large elephants sell for between £3,000 and £36,000, raising a total of £323,750 for St Luke's.
Will you be bidding?
Perhaps you've been following one particular design all summer.
Maybe there's one that reminds you of Plymouth, one that makes you smile, or simply one that you've photographed more times than you care to admit.
On 1 October, those favourites could become permanent residents.
Bidding will be available in person and online. And if you'd like to attend the auction, at Rolle Marquee, University of Plymouth, or find out more about online bidding, St Luke's is asking interested bidders to register their interest in advance.
Register your interest and find out more about the auction here: https://stlukesguidinglights.com/auction
What about the smaller lighthouses?
Not every Guiding Light is going under the hammer.
The Little Lights, created through St Luke's education programme, will return to the schools and community groups that decorated them, giving them a lasting legacy of the project.
So when the big lighthouses eventually disappear from Plymouth's streets, their little cousins will continue to shine elsewhere.
The lights may go out - but their legacy will shine on considerably longer.
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