19/10/2026
Smeaton’s Tower is Plymouth's famous red-and-white striped lighthouse on The Hoe—it is currently closed for the winter season and will reopen in Spring 2027.
What to Know About Climbing
The Climb: You can scale 93 steep steps and ladders up to the lantern room for panoramic views of Plymouth Sound, the city, and the coast.
History: The structure was originally built in 1759 on the Eddystone Reef out at sea, then moved stone by stone to its current land site in the 1880s.
You can see the current Eddystone lighthouse from Bigbury on sea, it is flashing just to the right of Burgh Island on the horizon. And on a very clear day you can see the base stump of this former Eddystone lighthouse next to the current lighthouse on Eddystone rocks.