Cape Coast Castle

Cape Coast Castle is the most visited heritage site on Ghana's coast and one of the most important places anywhere for understanding the transatlantic slave trade. A timber trading lodge was first built here in 1653 by the Swedish Africa Company, and the English captured it in 1664 on behalf of the Royal African Company and renamed it Cape Coast Castle. Beneath the whitewashed walls and parade ground lie dungeons cut into the rock, where around a thousand enslaved Africans could be held before being shipped across the Atlantic. Together with other forts and castles along the coast, it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

The heart of a visit is the guided tour, which lasts about 45 minutes and takes in the dungeons, the condemned cell and the Door of No Return, the last opening that captives passed through before boarding the ships. The experience is sombre and moving, and many visitors from the African diaspora come here as a personal pilgrimage. The Cape Coast Castle Museum, set up in one wing of the castle in the 1970s and refurbished in 1994 with international support, adds context with maps of trade routes, goods exchanged for captives such as beads, bottles and firearms, a replica of a ship's hold, gold weights, state swords and a model of the castle.

The visit suits adults and older children; parents should be aware that the subject matter and the dark dungeons can be distressing for younger visitors. Allow at least two hours for the tour and museum. Admission is charged with different rates for Ghanaians and international visitors and reductions for students. There is a bookshop and gift shop on site, curio sellers outside and a car park.

The museum's published hours are 09:00 to 16:30 daily, and the tourism ministry has spoken of extending evening opening, so check current times before you set off. Go early to beat the larger tour groups and the midday heat, and wear comfortable shoes for uneven stone floors. Dress respectfully, as this is a place of remembrance.

Cape Coast is a long drive west of Accra, so most visitors make it a full day trip by car or with a tour operator, often combining it with Elmina Castle a short distance further west and the canopy walkway at Kakum National Park to the north. Staying overnight in Cape Coast makes the trip more relaxed.