North Foreland

North Foreland is a chalk headland on the Kent coast of southeast England.

North Foreland forms the eastern end of the Isle of Thanet. It presents a bold cliff to the sea, and commands views over the southern North Sea.

Lighthouse

The necessity for a lighthouse at this place must have become apparent when the Goodwin Sands became dangerous and when it was found that in directing their course so as to keep clear of this land which extends so far into the sea ships were extremely liable to strike on the sands at night before they were aware. There was probably some sort of a beacon at an earlier period but the first distinct intimation concerning a lighthouse on the North Foreland is in the year 1636 when Charles I by letters-patent granted to Sir John Meldrum licence to continue and renew the lighthouses erected on the North and South Forelands.

It seems that the lighthouse erected by Sir John consisted merely of a house built with timber lath and plaster on the top of which a light was kept in a large glass lantern for the purpose of directing ships in their course. This house was burnt down by accident in the year 1683 after which for some years use was made of a sort of beacon on which a light was hoisted. But near the end of the same century a strong octagonal structure of flint was erected on the top of which was an iron grate quite open to the air in which a good fire of coals was kept blazing at night.

North Foreland (South Shetland Islands)

North Foreland is an ice-free headland on the northern coast of King George Island, the largest of the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It lies at the eastern entrance to Emerald Cove, 4.5 km east of Milosz Point, extending northwards for about 2 km and forming the northernmost extremity of the Island.

Important Bird Area

The headland has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a large breeding colony of about 23,000 pairs of chinstrap penguins. southern giant petrels also nest at the site, with 248 pairs recorded in 1966.

References

Coordinates: 61°53′35″S 57°41′17″W / 61.89306°S 57.68806°W / -61.89306; -57.68806

Foreland

Foreland is the easternmost point of the Isle of Wight. It is located three miles (five kilometres) east of the town of Brading, and due south of the city of Portsmouth on the British mainland. It is characterised by a pub called the Crab and Lobster Inn and various beach huts plus a beach cafe and a coast guard lookout. In the sea are the reefs of Bembridge Ledge which is rich in edible crabs, lobsters and spider crabs and shoals of mackerel. In the Crab & Lobster Inn are photographs of the many shipwrecks, which included the submarine HMS Alliance, now a museum ship at Gosport and the First World War troopship the S.S. Mehndi carrying troops from South Africa, with great loss of life.

The channel through the interior of the Bembridge Ledges is known as "Dickie Dawes Gut" after a notorious local smuggler (and father of the courtesan Sophie Dawes) due to his feat of escaping the excise men by superior local navigational knowledge. There was a pill-box built in the Second World War, now subsumed in the sea defences. The beach is sandy with stones which contain Cretaceous fossils. The cliffs also feature Horsetails ferns.