Gun Hill Signal Station

The lion stands at the base of Gun Hill, reached by a separate narrow road from the main signal station. Follow the signs for 'Barracks via Gun Hill' from the foot of the hill, stop at the first parking bay on the right, and a short series of stairs on the left brings you to it.

Carved in 1868 from a single piece of coral rock by Captain Henry Wilkinson and four military laborers, the life-size white lion stands with its left paw raised on a globe representing the world. Around the plinth runs a Latin inscription drawn from Psalm 72:8: Dominabitur a mari usque ad mare, a flumine usque ad terminos orbis terrarum — "He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." The centre of the plinth records the name and details of the sculptor.

The "he" of the inscription was not the psalm's original subject. Captain Wilkinson carved the lion as a symbol of Great Britain — a statement of imperial reach made permanent in stone. Given that the signal station itself was built in the wake of the 1816 enslaved rebellion, the full weight of that statement is worth pausing on. The lion is a well-known feature of Gun Hill and is certainly worth a visit.