Morant Point: Jamaica’s Oldest Lighthouse

Morant Point, located in the parish of St. Thomas, is Jamaica’s easternmost point, and marked by the oldest lighthouse on the island. Morant Point Lighthouse was built in 1841 by Kru men, a West African ethnic group indigenous to Ivory Coast and Liberia, who were never enslaved and renown for their exceptional maritime skills and seafaring. This national monument was the first cast iron lighthouse built in the Western Hemisphere, and still works to this day by flashing three white bursts of light every 20 seconds, serving as a useful navigational aid for vessels approaching from the Atlantic or rounding Jamaica’s southeastern coast. The road to the Morant Point Lighthouse is rough but well worth the effort. With that said, here’s how to find the Morant Point Lighthouse and how this unusual adventure went.

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