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Ghana-Net.com · Central Region · Anomabu (Anomabo)
Ghana's heritage authority lists a "Little Fort" at Anomabu as a protected monument. Its entire official description is one sentence. There is no date, no builder and no location — and when we went to Anomabu, the guides at Fort William could not tell us where it is. This page sets out what is known, and refuses to invent the rest.
The Ghana Museums and Monuments Board keeps a list of the forts and castles in its care. In the Central Region, immediately after Fort William at Anomabu, it names "The Little Fort at Anomabu". The Board's page for it reads, in full:
"The Little Fort at Anomabu in the Central Region is preserved as a ruin."
That is all. No construction date, no European company, no map, no photograph, no description of what survives. For a monument the state claims to protect, it is less than a signpost.
We went to Anomabu to find it. The people paid to show visitors the town's heritage could not help.
At Fort William, the large British fort that dominates the town, the guides from the Museums and Monuments Board said nothing about a second, smaller fort — not where it stood, not what it was, not whether anything is left. The Board lists the monument; its own staff on site do not know it.
That is the finding. A protected ruin that its guardians cannot locate is not being protected. It is being listed.
Anomabu had European forts before Fort William. The historical record names two. Only one of them could plausibly be a separate ruin today.
The first European post at Anomabu: a lodge of stone and brick built by the Dutch in 1640 under Arent Jacobsz van der Graeff. The Swedes took it in 1653, the Danes in 1657, and the Dutch recaptured it in 1659 or 1660. Where it stood is not recorded in any source we could find.
Built by the English after 1667 and named for King Charles II. It stood on the site of today's Fort William, was soon abandoned, and was destroyed by 1730. Because Fort William was built on top of it, it cannot be a separate ruin elsewhere in town.
Many forts had small outlying batteries or watch posts. Whether Anomabu had one that survived as a ruin is not documented anywhere we could find. We mention it only because it cannot be ruled out.
Our best reading: if the Little Fort is anything documented, the remains of the 1640 Dutch lodge are the only candidate that fits. That is a reasonable inference, not a fact, and this page will not present it as one.
Some accounts attach Anomabu's great battle to a "little fort". The sources do not support that.
When the Asante army under Osei Bonsu reached the coast, it attacked Anomabu in June 1807. The fighting centred on the big British fort — today's Fort William — defended by a small garrison under Governor George Torrane. The fort held, but the Fante of the town were slaughtered outside its walls; British sources speak of thousands dead. The war that led to it began in 1806, which is why the battle is often dated to that year.
The Asante side of these wars: Kumasi Fort and Nana Yaa Asantewaa. The men who fought and governed on this coast: Names of Past and Present.
If you know where the Little Fort at Anomabu is — from family history, from a chief or elder, from an old map, a photograph, or the Board's own files — tell us. We will visit, photograph and publish what we can verify, with credit.
And if the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board has records on this monument, they belong in public. A World Heritage country should be able to say what its listed ruins are.
We have written more about how Ghana's heritage bodies document — and fail to document — the sites in their care on GhanaMuseums.com.
Anomabu is on the main Cape Coast–Accra road, roughly 16 kilometres east of Cape Coast. Any trotro on that road will stop.
Fort William, the town's great British fort — one of the largest on the coast. The Little Fort, for now, you cannot.
Fort Nassau at Mouri, Fort Amsterdam at Abandze and Cape Coast Castle.
Beach lodges at Anomabu, or Cape Coast. Options on ghanahotels.biz.
Bookings through this widget earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. No operator has paid to appear on this page. No tour we know of mentions the Little Fort.
One of the largest British forts on the coast, and the scene of the Asante attack of 1807.
Built by the English as Fort Kormantin, taken by the Dutch in 1665. The origin of the name Coromantee.
The first Dutch fort on the Gold Coast, a few kilometres west towards Cape Coast.
Another protected ruin for which the official record says, in effect, nothing.
All of them, in order: Forts and Castles of Ghana.
We cannot tell you what the Little Fort at Anomabu is, when it was built or where to find it. Nobody else online can either — including the institution that lists it. Rather than invent a history, this page records the gap, and asks the people who can close it to do so.
Verified: 26 September 2026. The Ghana Museums and Monuments Board's listing and its one-sentence description are quoted as published. The Dutch lodge of 1640 and its Swedish, Danish and Dutch changes of hands, and Fort Charles of 1672–73 on the site of Fort William, abandoned and destroyed by 1730, follow standard reference accounts of the forts at Anomabu. The Asante attack of June 1807 on the British fort under Governor Torrane follows published accounts of the Asante–Fante war. The identification of the Little Fort with the Dutch lodge is an inference only. Ghana-Net visited Anomabu; the observation about the guides is our own. Corrections welcome and will be published in full.
