Cape Melville Lighthouse

Balabac Island
Balabac, Palawan

In the farthest tip of Balabac Island, the southernmost town of Palawan, is an aging yet beautiful lighthouse – Cape Melville Lighthouse.

Cape Melville Lighthouse was built in late 1800’s and is one of the few remaining Spanish-era lighthouses in the Philippines. It was first lit in 1892 to guide ships traversing the waters of Southern Balabac particularly those crossing the sea that separates Palawan and Pulau Banggi of Malaysia.

With its remoteness, Melville Lighthouse is one of, if not, the hardest to reach Spanish colonial lighthouse in the country. Others hail it as the most beautiful, the grand dame of all the lonely sentinels of the Philippines seas. The lighthouse is already decommissioned and replaced with a newer structure but its imposing presence still reminds us of its once glorious past.

This snapshot of the lonely sentinel of Balabac was taken from the new lighthouse erected few meters away.

For more information on Cape Melville Lighthouse and Balabac, check out Lakwatsero’s Balabac Travel Guide.