Photo: moisemarian (Pixabay Licence)
Europa Point
A lighthouse Trinity House still keeps, a mosque a king paid for, a Victorian gun you can stand beside, and Africa across the water. One bus, no ticket.
The route, stop by stop
What each stop is, why it matters, and how long to the next one.
Photo: Allie Caulfield (CC BY 2.0)
01
Trinity Lighthouse
The only Trinity House light outside the British Isles.
Built between 1838 and 1841 and still run by Trinity House, which keeps every lighthouse in England and Wales and this one. Automated in February 1994; its loom carries 27 kilometres out into the Strait. You see it from the outside. It is not open, and the keepers' cottages beside it are private homes.
From the last stop
Off the bus at the terminus, it is in front of you.
Photo: Visit Gibraltar (Used with permission of the Gibraltar Tourist Board)
02
The terrace and the Strait
Where the Mediterranean starts.
From the railings the Rif mountains of Morocco stand across the Strait on any clear day, with the shipping lane in between. This is the narrowing where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic, and the reason every battery around you was built. The panels on the terrace name what you are looking at.
From the last stop
Two minutes, past the lighthouse to the seaward railings.
Photo: Moshi Anahory (CC BY-SA 2.0)
03
Harding's Battery
A 38-ton gun, back on its mount.
A nineteenth-century battery restored in 2013, when its original 12.5-inch rifled muzzle-loader, 38 tons of it and able to throw an 800-pound shell, was set on a replica carriage. Walk up onto the platform. The magazine beneath is the visitor centre, when it is open.
From the last stop
Three minutes along the terrace.
Photo: Acediscovery (CC BY 4.0)
04
Ibrahim-al-Ibrahim Mosque
A gift from King Fahd, opened in 1997.
Inaugurated on 8 August 1997 after two years' building and around five million pounds, paid for by the King of Saudi Arabia. One of the largest mosques in a non-Muslim country, and the first thing a ship from the Atlantic sees of Gibraltar. Visitors are welcome outside prayer times; dress covered and take your shoes off inside.
From the last stop
Two minutes across the point.
Photo: Mike McBey (CC BY 2.0)
05
The Sikorski memorial
A propeller, for a plane that fell into the bay.
General Władysław Sikorski, head of the Polish government in exile, died with fifteen others when his Liberator crashed into the sea seconds after take-off from Gibraltar on 4 July 1943. The memorial has stood here since 2013, seventy years on; the propeller is the shape of what was lost.
From the last stop
One minute, on the seaward edge.
Photo: Scott Wylie (CC BY 2.0)
06
Nun's Well and the shrine
A cistern older than the town.
A vaulted underground water store beneath a crenellated cover, traditionally dated to the Moorish period and used in the nineteenth century by a brewery. The buildings above were repaired in 1988; it is fenced, so you look in from the road. Behind it the Shrine of Our Lady of Europe holds the image consecrated in 1462 after the Spanish retook the Rock, and the patroness's title Rome confirmed in 1979.
From the last stop
Four minutes back towards the bus stop.
Before you go
The bus back is the same bus.
Route 2 turns round at the point and runs back to Market Place every fifteen minutes until about nine in the evening, half that on Sundays. The last bus is the last bus.
Bring a jacket. The point takes the Levanter full on and it is cooler than Main Street when it blows. Getting around →
What we read
- Europa Point Lighthouse · Trinity House
- Europa Point: lighthouse, mosque, Harding's Battery, Nun's Well, shrine · Wikipedia
- 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash · Wikipedia
- Bus routes and fares · Gibraltar Index, Getting around
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