NEAREST LIGHTHOUSES

[CAT]

The same can be said for Ramsgate harbour whose harbour arm has a nice compact period lighthouse on the end, but remember to get different trains than those for Folkestone.

[Invicta Alec]

Bill if driving is getting a little problematic why not use the train?

Jump on at Maidstone East and come and visit us in Folkestone. We've got a delightful little lighthouse at the end of the harbour arm. You can have some sea air, chips and a beer, unbeatable!

Alec.

[MartinR]

Calais light has the characteristic Fl(4)15s59m22M which interpreted means: 4 flashes repeated every 15 seconds.  59m above sea level with a range of 22 nautical miles.  Cap Gris Nez is Fl 5s72m29M or one flash every 5 seconds at a height of 72 m visible for 29 nautical miles.  So, on a clear night you should be able to just see both.  In theory a vessel without modern navigational instruments can travel from France to England using the Cap Gris Nez to Folkstone passage just by observing the lights.  BTW, Folkstone is Fl(2)10s22M.

[Bill Jones]

Thank you both. I wrote Dymchurch for some reason when I meaned Dungeness was the place I visited lol, the lesson is not typing with a hangover from English rum which is strangely seems more powerful then the ones where I was born, which does not seem right!! The lighthouse at North Foreland looks pretty and worth visiting but I am worried about the small roads there. I can take the M20 to Dover to visit the one or two at South Foreland but again it looks like small roads there. I must be braver in my driving.


Can I see French lighthouses shining at night from Dover? I am guessing that the French have them like us?

[Mike Gunnill]

The lighthouse at St Margaret's near dover is interesting. Last week in the afternoons they were having cream teas. Good hunting.

[MartinR]

https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses-and-lightvessels
List of lighthouses and lightvessels straight from the horse's mouth.  Visitor centers are a bit harder to find: https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouse-visitor-centres  You can even stay at some: https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouse-cottages

Nearby there are only North Foreland (https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses-and-lightvessels/north-foreland-lighthouse) and Dungeness (https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses-and-lightvessels/dungeness-lighthouse), though the latter does have a redundant lighthouse as well as the current one.  Dover has a redundant lighthouse in the castle, it's called the "Pharos" and is a Roman light, so near on 2,00 years old.  What Dover does have are the harbour lights marking the entrances.  The eastern entrance only has minor lights, but there is a 15m high light on the souther breakwater and a pair of 21m lights marking the western entrance.

[Bill Jones]

I live in Maidstone and wonder where lighthouses are that I can visit to take pictures. I have driven to Dymchurch and I have seen the two of them that are there, but the driving was scary as everuone seems to drive so madly in Kent. Can you good people tell me where it would be EASY to drive to another one or maybe two please?? I have seen that there are two near Dover and the motorway looks easy for me so I might try that if the near roads are not hard.