Lighthouses

*** under construction ***

Ghana has about 540 km of coastline along the Gulf of Guinea with about a dozen lighthouses on and off shore. Some of them are listed here in geographical order, west to east.

Lighthouse name heading links are to the satellite images on IndexMundi, while the nearest community name links are to the toponym records.

Meanings and origins of names are given where known, and further details can be found by following the community links where relevant.

Explanation of table data:

  • Built: Date of construction

  • Focal Plane: Height of beam (metres) above mean sea level

  • Range: Visibility (nautical miles)

  • Signal:

    • No. of flashes in sequence,

    • Colour of light (W=white; R=red),

    • Period (seconds) of sequence,

    • fn - see footnote for detail

Bobowasi Island

Bobowasi Island lies about 1 km offshore from Axim, by which name the light is also known. The round stone tower is about 12 metres high topped with lantern and gallery, and is attached to a single-storey keeper's house. It was inactive from 1960 to 2003.

'Bobowasi' is a corruption of 'bebo Arezi‘ which means 'they have beaten Arezi'. This refers to the unfortunate fate of one visitor at the hands of dwarfs who were believed to have inhabited the forest before the lighthouse was built.

W|R depends on direction, 14 s on, 3 s off

Cape Three Points

Cape Three Points is the most southerly peninsula of Ghana, the three points referring to the shape of the coastline. The lighthouse is near the tip of the middle point, and there is a village less than a kilometre to the north-northeast called Cape Three Point. The 18 m white round stone tower supports the lantern and gallery, both painted red.

360° panorama © Susan Ashlock

Fort William

GMMB has the following description of this imposing structure, no longer active as a lighthouse since the 1970s:

Fort William is sited on Dawson’s Hill in Cape Coast, in the Central Region of Ghana. Fort William was built in April 1820 on the site of a lookout post previously used for signalling purposes. The fort was built by the then English Governor, Hope-Smith. It was named Smith’s Tower. Prior to 1838, the fort was converted to a lighthouse and renamed Fort William.

Within the walls of the circular fort, a 20 m square stone tower is surmounted by a gallery and the lantern.

It was during the British King William IV's reign (1830-7) that the fort was renamed.

Jamestown

Jamestown is one of the oldest districts of Accra, emerging as a community around Fort James, which was built by the British as a trading post in 1673. The original lighthouse was built at the Fort in 1871, and was replaced in the late 1920s or early 1930s. It consists of a 28 metre stone tower with lantern and gallery, attached to a keeper's house.

Fort James was probably named after James, Duke of York, (later to be King James II), who was Governor of the Royal African Company at the time it was built.

Cape Saint Paul

Stretching about 20 km round the southern half of Keta Lagoon is a convex coastline called Cape Saint Paul. At about the midpoint situated near the beach at the town of Woe is a lighthouse of unusual design, said to be one of only two in the world (the other being in Alpena in the United States overlooking Thunder Bay, Lake Huron). The 25 m high structure consists of an octagonal pyramidal iron skeletal tower, with the upper quarter encased in metal plate, and topped with a gallery and lantern.

GPN does not have information about how the Cape was named.

Sources:

Wikimedia Creative Commons photo by Macabe5387