Historical and Educational Experiences

Bunce Island was established as a major slave trading fortress and castle in 1670, is locate approximately twenty miles upriver in the Freetown Harbor on the Sierra Leone River. Bunce Island is a small piece of land measuring just 1700 feet long and 300 feet wide. Built in the 17th century, Bunce Island’s old structures capture the past in the present.

Bunce Island is not only a rich experience for descendants of slaves who may have left the coast but also for anyone interested in the history of Sierra Leone and the slave trade. Read articles on Visit Sierra Leone's Bunce Island Excursion of 2004 and 2005.

Old Fourah Bay College is probably Freetown's most famous institution , it is the oldest university in West Africa. In it's former splendor, Sierra Leone became known as the "Athens of West Africa" as scholars from all over Africa would travel to Sierra Leone to further their education. Samuel Adjai Crowther, the college’s first student, later becomes the first home-grown Bishop of West Africa.

The Sierra Leone Museum (Mon-Fri 10am-4pm; entry by donation) was, until 1929, a railway terminus ("Cotton Tree Station") at the foot of the "Hill railway" up to Wilberforce and Hill Station. The collections are worth a visit. There are not many visitors and you’re likely to get a guided tour of some kind. There are a range of other artefacts on view, including the original drum of Bai Bureh.

The Sierra Leone National Railway Museum was established by Col. Steve Davies MBE, Deputy Commander of the International Military Advisory Training Team in Sierra Leone, working in his spare time with a team of fifteen young unemployed Sierra Leoneans.  Together they have transformed a shed of locomotives, abandoned since abolition of the State railway in 1974, into the country's first railway museum (and second national museum).  It includes a coach built for the State Visit of HM The Queen in 1961.