Port Louis

Port Louis on Berkeley Sound is where Bougainville founded the first European settlement in the Falklands in 1764, and it remained the capital until Stanley took over in 1845. The settlement is now a working sheep farm with the old stone house, a cemetery and traces of the earlier occupations around it. The oldest surviving building in the islands stands here, and the sound is a sheltered anchorage. The settlement passed from France to Spain in 1767, and each later occupation left something on the ground.

History

Louis de Bougainville founded the settlement on 5 April 1764 as Port Saint Louis, the first French settlement in the islands, and in 1767 it was transferred to Spain and renamed Puerto Soledad. For a time it was the Spanish capital of the islands, a naval outpost run from Montevideo, until the Spanish withdrew their governor in 1806 and abandoned the settlement in 1811. In 1828 the Hamburg-born merchant Luis Vernet set up a colony here under a grant from Buenos Aires, calling it Puerto Luis, and by 1831 it was well established and advertising for settlers; the British later named it Anson's Harbour for a while before returning to the original French name, Port Louis (Wikipedia, Port Louis, Falkland Islands).

Highlights

• The 1764 site - the first European settlement made in the islands.
• The old stone house - among the oldest surviving buildings in the Falklands.
• The cemetery - the burial ground carrying the settlement's history.
• Berkeley Sound - the sheltered anchorage the site was chosen for.

When to go

October to April is the practical season. Winter tracks are difficult. The settlement is a working farm at all times.

Things to know

It is a private working farm and permission is needed to visit. There is no interpretation and no facilities. Buildings are in use or unsafe and access is limited.

Nearby

Cape Bougainville is northeast, and Stanley is southeast.

Key facts