Duke Town is the oldest and most characterful part of Calabar, a hillside neighbourhood of colonial-era buildings, old tin-roofed Efik houses, and the Presbyterian church founded by the earliest Scottish missionaries. The name comes from the Efik trading house of the Duke family, who were among the most powerful merchants in the pre-colonial slave and palm oil trades.
Walking through Duke Town is a lesson in layered history: you pass the ruins of 19th-century trading houses, the well-maintained Duke of Clarence Church, and the old Government Hill where British officials once looked down on the river. The views from the ridge over the Calabar River and across to the mangrove forests on the far bank are worth the climb alone.