The white-washed fort sits on the rocky headland above the harbour, the largest building in Dixcove and visible from almost everywhere in the village. It was built by the English in 1691 as part of the network of forts and trading posts along the Gold Coast, used first for the gold trade and later as a transit point for enslaved people sent across the Atlantic.
You can climb up to the gate and walk through the courtyard, look at the cannon, and follow the ramparts around for views of the harbour, the village, and the open sea. The interior rooms are mostly empty but a small caretaker's office will guide you for a tip. As at the better-known forts at Elmina and Cape Coast, the experience is unsettling — these handsome buildings are the surface of a deep wound — but unlike them, Dixcove is quiet, uncrowded, and you can sit and take it in.