South Foreland Lighthouses
| Location | South Foreland, Dover, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| South Foreland Upper Lighthouse | |
South Foreland Lighthouse from the front | |
| Designed by | James Walker |
| Built by | James Walker |
| Construction | stone (tower) |
| Height | 21 m (69 ft) |
| Shape | octagonal tower with balcony and lantern attached to keeper's house |
| Markings | white (tower, lantern) |
| Operator | Trinity House (–1988) |
| Heritage | Grade II listed building |
| First lit | 1843 |
| Deactivated | 1988 |
| Lens | first order Fresnel lens |
| Characteristic | Fl W (3) |
| South Foreland Lower Lighthouse | |
| Constructed | 1846 |
| Height | 15 m (49 ft) |
| Operator | Trinity House (–1910) |
| Heritage | Grade II listed building |
| Deactivated | 1904 |
South Foreland Lighthouses are a pair of Victorian lighthouses on the South Foreland in St. Margaret's Bay, Dover, Kent, England, used to warn ships approaching the nearby Goodwin Sands. There has been a pair of lighthouses at South Foreland since at least the 1630s. Even after the decommissioning of the Lower Lighthouse the pair continued to be used as leading marks, with Admiralty charts into the 20th century indicating that the 'Lighthouses in line lead south of the Goodwin Sands'.
South Foreland Upper Lighthouse was built in 1843. It went out of service in 1988 and is currently owned by the National Trust. It was the first lighthouse to use an electric light, and was the site chosen by Guglielmo Marconi for his pioneering experiments in wireless radio transmissions.
South Foreland Lower Lighthouse was built at the same time further down the cliff, to the east, where it still stands; decommissioned in 1904, it is now in private ownership.
After the Lower Lighthouse had been decommissioned the Upper Lighthouse was simply referred to as South Foreland Lighthouse.