Baluarte Watchtower, Luna

The baluarte at Luna is one of a chain of coastal watchtowers the Spanish built along the Ilocos and La Union shore in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to give warning of raiding parties arriving by sea - lookouts manned by locals who would light fires or ring bells when sails appeared. What survives here is a stone shell on the shore, weathered and open to the sky, standing above a beach made not of sand but of smooth grey and white pebbles worn round by the surf, which is a local speciality: the stones are collected and sold for landscaping across the region. Sunset over the South China Sea is the reason most people come, with the tower silhouetted against it. The site is small and unmanaged; there is a marker, a stretch of shore and no facilities beyond what the nearby resorts offer.

What you actually see

• The stone tower - the roofless watchtower shell.
• The pebble beach - rounded stones instead of sand.
• The sunset line - open water west of the tower.
• The coast road - the shore run toward Ilocos.

When to go

November to May for dry weather and clear sunsets. Late afternoon is the reason to come; the shore is exposed and hot earlier in the day.

Honest expectations

The tower is an unfenced ruin with no interpretation and no facilities. The pebble beach is hard walking and not a swimming beach. It is a short stop on the coast road.

Nearby

San Juan's surf beaches and the Ma-Cho Temple are south; Vigan is about an hour and a half north.