Harte Outdoor Lighting

Who Harte are

Harte Outdoor Lighting is a family firm in New Ross, County Wexford, making outdoor lights in Ireland since 1983. Willie Harte started it; his daughter Liz and grandson Jack run it now. The workshop still casts, welds, sprays and glazes on the same site, and the offices and workshop run on solar power during daylight hours. Almost everything is made to order rather than pulled off a shelf, which is why a Harte light takes a few weeks rather than a few days, and why the finish and the colour can be changed before it is built. We stock Harte's range because very little outdoor lighting at this price is still made this way in these islands.

Cast iron, and why they use it

Most of the range is cast iron, with galvanised mild steel for the columns and the arms. Cast iron is heavy and that is the point: the weight keeps a post upright in wind, and the casting holds the sharp edges of the beading and the finials that a pressing cannot. Galvanising protects the steel from the inside out, which matters far more on an Irish or British coast than any paint does. Copper appears across several ranges as a head or a whole lantern, and it is the one material that keeps changing after it is fitted, moving from bright through brown to green over years.

The ranges, and how they differ

Traditional is the Victorian park lamp scaled for a house, and it is the widest range. Heritage swaps the tapered lantern for a cast iron globe. Manor and Manor Heritage are heavier versions of both. Courtyard is Georgian, with a cylindrical glazed body and an ornate cap that pushes light downwards and keeps it off the sky. Station Master copies the lamps of Irish railway platforms from the late 1800s, and it is the one that carries copper heads across most of its shapes. Goose Neck takes the curve of a farmyard bracket and hangs a teardrop shade from it. Gate Lodge is the bollard range. BARE was drawn in house by Jack Harte for modern houses, with straight edges and a lantern shaped like an interior shade.

What the range covers

Lamp posts run from 1.4m to 3.7m, including double and triple headed versions for a drive or a forecourt. Pedestal lights are the same lantern at knee to waist height for a path or a terrace. Pillar lights sit on gate posts and garden piers. Wall lights come as downturned brackets, arms, bulkheads and flush boxes. Hanging lanterns drop on a 300mm chain for a porch or a covered entrance. Bollards light a driveway edge. Beyond the lights themselves there are lantern heads sold on their own, plain columns, wall brackets, cross arms, pier top adaptors and the galvanised foundation frames that set a post in concrete.

Finishes and colour

Gloss black is standard across the range, hand sprayed in enamel. Harte will finish to any RAL colour to order, and they hold a set of pearlized colours of their own: pearl blue, pearl grey, pearl green and pearl gold. Copper is a material rather than a colour on the ranges that offer it, so a copper head weathers where a copper-coloured paint would not. If you want something other than black, say so when you order rather than after, because the colour goes on before the light is glazed and assembled.

Ratings, lamps and wiring

Harte rate most of the range IP44, which covers splashing from any direction and suits ordinary British and Irish weather, and IP65 on the fittings meant for fully open positions. Glazing is either polycarbonate or hand-cut glass depending on the model. Almost everything takes an E27 screw lamp and ships without one, so the output and the colour are yours to pick; a 7W to 10W LED at 2700K is the usual choice for a warm entrance light. Each fitting carries a maximum wattage on its own data sheet and that figure is a safety limit rather than a recommendation. Outdoor wiring is work for a qualified electrician on a protected circuit.

Lead times, delivery and the refurbishment service

Because the lights are made to order, allow two to five weeks from order to delivery, longer for a non-standard colour. Harte also offer a refurbishment service on their own lights, whatever their age, which is worth knowing if you have an old one on a gate pier that has gone past painting. Spare lantern heads, glass and lampholders are available separately for the same reason. We list the data sheet on every product page we hold one for, so the dimensions, the weight and the fixing detail are there before you order rather than after.