Danger Point Lighthouse, Maritime beacon at Danger Point, Gansbaai, South Africa.
Danger Point Lighthouse is a white octagonal masonry tower 18.3 m tall on the southern point of Walker Bay, near Gansbaai. It was built after a lighthouse commission of 1890 called for a light here and engineer W T Douglass reported on the site in May 1892. The light was first exhibited on 1 January 1895.
The structure began operating in 1895 after over 140 ships had been lost between Danger Point and Cape Infanta. Its construction was a direct response to repeated maritime disasters in the area that had claimed many lives.
Bartolomeu Dias landed here on 16 May 1488 and named the site Ponte de Sao Brandao; the present name comes from the reefs and rocks below the water. A memorial plaque set into the tower wall commemorates the HMS Birkenhead, which struck a barely visible rock 1.679 km offshore on 25 February 1852, drowning 445 soldiers and their families.
The tower stands at the southern tip of Walker Bay near Gansbaai, reached by road from the town; the surrounding coast is rocky and exposed, so keep to marked paths near the water. The light shows three beams every forty seconds, useful for timing a visit at dusk.
The light was first exhibited on 1 January 1895, after a lighthouse commission of 1890 stressed the need for a light at Danger Point and engineer W T Douglass reported on the proposal in May 1892. The octagonal tower emits three beams every forty seconds.
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