Jacob's Ladder, Saint Helena

Jacob's Ladder is a staircase that climbs straight up a mountainside. From the edge of Jamestown, the small capital of the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, 699 steps run in an unbroken line up the steep flank of Ladder Hill, rising 183 metres over a length of about 280 metres. The angle of climb varies between 39 and 41 degrees, so steep that from the bottom the top seems to hang above the town, and from the top the houses of Jamestown appear laid out in the narrow valley below like a map, with the ocean beyond.

The ladder did not begin as a staircase. It was built in 1829 by the Saint Helena Railway Company, to a design by the local engineer J. W. Hoar, as an inclined plane linking Jamestown with the fort on top of Ladder Hill. Two cars ran on rails up and down the slope, hauled by an iron chain and pulleys connected to a capstan at the top, which was turned by a team of three donkeys. The line carried cargo between the town and the fort. In 1871 termites had so damaged the wooden sleepers that the Royal Engineers removed the rails, cars and machinery, leaving only the steps between them. Originally there were 700; one was later covered over by roadworks.

Saint Helena itself is one of the most isolated inhabited islands in the world, a volcanic island in the South Atlantic best known as the place of Napoleon's exile and death. Jamestown, founded by the English East India Company in the seventeenth century, fills a deep valley that opens onto the sea, and Jacob's Ladder has become its emblem. The staircase is a Grade I listed structure, and climbing it has become a local tradition and a challenge: the record time to the top stands at under five minutes.

Getting there

Jacob's Ladder starts at the edge of Jamestown, the capital of Saint Helena, a British Overseas Territory, and climbs to Ladder Hill Fort. The nearest airport is Saint Helena Airport (HLE), about 9 km away in a straight line.