The owner of the Lighthouse Tea Room in Southampton was shocked when she arrived at Gibbs Hill Lighthouse yesterday morning to discover a vandal had sprayed graffiti on this national monument.

Heidi Cowen said the culprit was obviously an amateur who couldn't figure out anything significant to write and simply scrawled in a child-like way across the wall in black spray paint.

"The Lighthouse park was full of tourists arriving for breakfast and sightseeing and it's too bad this type of vandalism is what they paid good money to come and see," she said.

She said it broke her heart to see someone destroy something within minutes that had taken the Government so much time to restore.

"Has the younger generation lost their sense of pride for their Island," she asked.

She did however thank the Department of Works and Engineering who arrived soon after her telephone call to cover the wall in a fresh coat of paint.