Finding Grandad's Survey Beacon...

One of my objectives in travelling to Tristan da Cunha was to follow in my Grandfather's footsteps. I wanted to walk where he went, and to see what he saw. When Grandad was first on Tristan in 1937 as part of the Norwegian Scientific Expedition one of his primary roles was to accurately map the island. This he did, and his chart was accepted by the British Admiralty as Chart No. 1769.

But in order to map Tristan, he had to set up survey beacons at strategic locations all over Tristan. We had heard that one of his survey beacons still survived on Herald Point, near the Settlement. We walked past Tristan's only golf course as we searched for the observation point. We were very happy when we found it, overgrown and tottering rather close to the edge of a cliff, but still in the same place as it was when Grandad mapped Tristan da Cunha! This is the view of Calshot Harbour as seen from the observation beacon.

 The beacon as it was in 1937.

The beacon as it is today.