Punta Carnero Lighthouse

Optical Array Details

Location: Algeciras, Punta Carnero.
Coordinates: 36º04.628'N 05º25.573'W
Signal Type: Lighthouse
Height: 19m
Colour: White/Red
Focal Length: 250mm
Light & Sound Character: Sandstone masonry tower; Sector Lights: Red - 325° al 018° over La Perla and Las Bajas Shoals; White - groups of 4 x 20” flashes on the remainder of the horizon

Punta Carnero Lighthouse Optic

Map of Location and Visibility

Punta Carnero Lighthouse Ubicaction

History

The lighthouse is located in the Borough of Algeciras on the cape that gives it its name – Punta Carnero – and closes the Bay of Algeciras to the West.

Determined to be essential under the 1858 General Plan for Maritime Signalling of the Coasts, Ports and Adjacent Islands of Spain, with a view to lighting the entrance of the Bay of Algeciras and signalling the shipping hazard posed by La Perla Shoals, the final project to build Punta Carnero Lighthouse was not drafted until 1864, when the civil engineer Jaime Font y Escola provided it with its first 5th Order optical array and a fixed red beam.

Despite its construction being granted by Royal Decree on 30th November 1864, the Lighthouse Commission almost decided to cancel it so that its signal would not be confused with the one at Tarifa (which had also had to change its beam pattern four years previously, after the Cape Spartel Lighthouse was put in service on the Moroccan coast); however, the petition made by Trinity House – from Britain – along with other complaints, put paid to its cancellation. It was decided to continue with its construction, but providing it with a fixed green beam instead of the red one as originally planned. Building work began at last, and it was put into service in 1874.

Designed as a sandstone masonry, cylindrical tower, its shaft recalls the lighthouses at Chipiona or San Jeronimo by the same architect. Its upper structure is borne on a balcony fitted with metal balustrade that are underpinned by elegant corbels. This is where the lantern lies, with a focal plane that is 42 metres above sea level and 19 metres above its base.

In 1908, the lighthouse still retained its original fixed green beam, lit by a Maris wick lantern that had replaced its earlier, rapeseed oil-fuelled lantern. That very year, its green beam was changed to white and its pattern became a group-of-three flashes, alternating with one isolated flash. The lantern was also given a red sector to signal the shipping hazard posed by La Perla Shoals.

In 1973, it was electrified and provided with its current gas-electrical mixed system; and, two years later, it was given a new siren. In 1997, the lantern was overhauled and the lighthouse was controlled remotely.

Heritage & Conservation

Put forward for declaration as a Cultural Asset of Interest on the initiative of the College of Civil Engineers in October, 2006.
Included into the Lighthouse Catalogue as a Heritage Asset of the Ministry of Education, Culture & Sports by the Spanish Heritage Institute, in 2017.
Included as a Grade 3 Listed Building and classified as a Building of Archaeological Interest in the Building Conservation Catalogue, under the Borough of Algeciras’s General Urban Planning Project
Included into the Port of Algeciras Bay Authority’s Conservation & Historical Asset Enhancement Plan, in 2021.

Features

Located in the heart of the Strait of Gibraltar Natural Park, next to the ruins of the old Punta Carnero Fort that was destroyed in 1810.
Its tower bears a resemblance to Chipiona Lighthouse.
It was the last keeper-manned lighthouse to be managed by our Port Authority until 2018.
The lighthouse and its headland are included on the Paco de Lucia Trail, developed and offered to the public by Algeciras City Council.

Find out more

If you would like to find out more about this lighthouse, we recommend the following articles:

Visits

Punta Carnero Lighthouse is not currently open to visitors.

However, if you wish to see the Punta Carnero Lighthouse, you can view it from the following trail:

Getares to Punta Carnero Trail

Our Port Authority is currently processing an application for a tourist accommodation license for the houses adjacent the lighthouse tower under the umbrella of the Lighthouses of Spain Project, initiated by the State Ports Department. The idea is to promote tourist activities (cultural, social, accommodation, etc.) that private, public or mixed initiatives may wish to start up at any of these installations not currently employed for maritime signalling, and make use of these types of location.