Jaigad Fort

Jaigad Fort, written Zyghur in old British records, stands on a cliff at the tip of a peninsula at Jaigad in Ratnagiri district, 14 kilometres from the temple town of Ganpatipule. It looks over the bay at the mouth of the Shastri river, across to the open sea and a nearby power plant, and the jetty port of Angrey and a lighthouse are close by. Tradition says the Bijapur kings built the fort in the 16th century; it then passed to the Naiks of Sangameshwar, who beat combined Bijapur and Portuguese forces in 1583 and 1585. In 1713 Balaji Vishwanath Peshwa ceded it to Kanhoji Angre as one of ten forts, and the British took it without a fight in June 1818.

Though ruined, most of the outer wall and ramparts still stand, and a deep moat guards the sides away from the cliff. Within the 13-acre fort are Kanhoji Angre's palace, a Ganpati temple and wells for storing water. It is a protected monument.