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Updated July 31, 1998
Created July 31, 1998 from material supplied by Suzanne Turner.
What is the setting of To the Lighthouse?
To the Lighthouse is set in the Hebrides Islands off the west coast of Scotland. The setting bears little actual resemblance to the Hebrides, drawing as it does on Woolf’s childhood summer home in St. Ives, Cornwall, particularly Talland House, the house Leslie Stephen bought there the year Virginia Woolf was born. Like Talland House, the Ramsay house in the Hebrides looks out to sea and has a view of a lighthouse. The house was so vividly connected to the Stephen’s family, that the first visit back to the house following Julia Stephen’s death was the germ for the novel.