Gorleston South Pier Lighthouse

Gorleston South Pier Lighthouse stands at the tip of the South Pier in Gorleston, a town on the southern edge of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. The present tower was built in 1955 and once served as the harbourmaster’s office. An earlier octagonal brick lighthouse was raised on the same spot in 1852. The pier itself stretches out into the North Sea, offering wide views along the coast. A modern watch station shares the site with the lighthouse, forming a small cluster of maritime buildings. The light is mounted on the roof together with harbour control lamps and a fog horn that sounds three blasts every sixty seconds when needed. The Great Yarmouth Port Authority runs the navigation equipment. Since 2005 the building has housed the Gorleston branch of the National Coastwatch Institution, a volunteer organisation that keeps watch over the sea from eight in the morning until eight in the evening during the summer months and until four in the afternoon in winter. More than sixty local volunteers take turns to act as the eyes and ears of HM Coast Guard. Visitors reach the lighthouse by walking the full length of the South Pier. The pier deck is wide and open, giving clear sightlines to passing ships and the distant breakwaters. The watchtower rises above the pier buildings, its windows facing north and south along the coast. Benches are placed along the pier for those who want to sit and watch the sea. On calm days the water laps gently against the wooden piles, while in stronger winds the waves break against the pier’s stone base.