St Anthony's Lighthouse

St Anthony’s Lighthouse stands on St Anthony Head at the eastern entrance to Falmouth Harbour and the Carrick Roads. Trinity House built it in 1835 to a design by its consultant engineer James Walker, after Falmouth’s mayor and shipowners applied for a light in December 1830. It helps ships clear the Manacles reef, working alongside the Lizard Lighthouse, and the light was first shown on 20 April 1835.

The tower is 19 metres high, with the light 22 metres above mean high water. It was electrified in 1954, the same year its large fog bell was replaced by a fog horn, and it was automated in 1987. Trinity House now monitors it from its planning centre in Harwich, Essex. The light shows white and red sectors on a 15-second cycle.

Walkers reach the headland on the South West Coast Path, with views across the harbour mouth to Pendennis Point and Pendennis Castle. St Mawes Castle also guards the harbour mouth from the Roseland side. Trinity House lets the keepers’ accommodation next to the tower as holiday cottages. The lighthouse also appeared in the 1980s children’s series Fraggle Rock.