Fort Margherita

Fort Margherita was built in 1879 by Charles Brooke, the second of the three White Rajahs who ruled Sarawak as a private kingdom from 1841 to 1946, and named for his wife Margaret. It stands on the north bank above a bend of the Sarawak river, positioned to cover the approach to Kuching against pirates and raiders coming upstream, and it looks like a small English castle - white, crenellated, with a square keep and gun ports - which is what makes it so incongruous on a tropical riverbank. It is now the Brooke Gallery, a museum on the dynasty, its administration, its wars and its ambiguities, run by a trust. The way to get there is the tambang, the small wooden ferry that crosses the river from the Kuching waterfront for a few coins.

History

The fort is named after Charles Brooke's wife, Margaret Alice Lili de Windt, whom he married at Highworth in Wiltshire in 1869 and who became Ranee of Sarawak, and it stands on a hill on the north bank of the Sarawak River (Wikipedia, Fort Margherita).

Highlights

• A white crenellated keep - an English-looking castle on a tropical river.
• The Brooke Gallery - the museum of the White Rajah dynasty inside.
• River gun positions - the fort's coverage of the approach to Kuching.
• The tambang crossing - the wooden ferry over from the waterfront.

When to go

All year; check museum opening days. An hour or two.

Things to know

The fort is small and the museum is compact - two hours is generous. The tambang stops running in the evening. The climb from the jetty is short but steep and unshaded.

Nearby

The Astana and the Sarawak state assembly are on the same bank; Kuching waterfront is opposite.

Key facts