The top of the hexagonal maroon signal tower at Gun Hill Signal Station can be seen from miles around, standing sentinel over the rolling hills of southern Barbados.

The panoramic views from its forecourt across to the South Coast and Bridgetown underline its strategic military location. Although a military site from around 1700, the signal station wasn’t built by the British until 1818, two years after the island’s main uprising against the colonisers.

Thanks to the National Trust of Barbados, it is the best preserved of a chain of six signal stations that were set up not only to suppress rebellion by the enslaved populace, but also to keep an eye out for ships arriving. The only two other remaining signal towers are the Cotton Tower, tucked away to the north in St John (not open to the public), and Grenade Hall next to the Barbados Wildlife Reserve, even further north, in St Peter.