Porthcawl Docks (0.607ha of water) were built in the 1820s by the Duffryn Llynvi & Porthcawl Railway (nprn 34803), a horse drawn railway of 4ft 7in (1397mm) gauge linking the expanding coal and iron industries of the South Wales valleys.Sailing Directions dating to 1884 note '? consists of an inner floating dock of 7 1/2 acres, connected by gates of 55 feet wide, with a half tide basin of 1 1/2 acres having an entrance of 62 feet, and conducting piers towards the south of 250feet. The harbour is protected from the southwest by a breakwater extending SSE 1/2 E for 600feet, and in stormy weather, when the run of the sea is great, the mouth of the basin is closed by booms. At the outer end of the breakwater stands a lighthouse 23feet high.' The Custom House returns for 1876 recorded exports of coal of 100,486 tons coastwise and 395 tons foreign. However, the Great Western Railway closed the docks in 1898 and they have since been filled-in. On the south of the remaining harbour (the former 'Outer Basin') stands a large limestone built warehouse (nprn 34263), now occupied by the Royal National Lifeboat Institute. A length of 'preserved' rail on the quayside is now sadly neglected. At the south eastern end of the breakwater stands a small hexagonal cast iron harbour light (nprn 34274), 4.57m high, of 1866. It is one of only two surviving cast iron lighthouses in Wales (the other at Whitford Point, nprn 34289). The Outer Basin has been redeveloped as a small craft marina.

Sources include:
Association for Industrial Archaeology, 2003, A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of South East Wales
Admiralty; 1884, Sailing Directions for the Bristol Channel, 4th Ed, pg116
Historic Admiralty Chart 1183-A2, RCAHMW Digital Collections sourced from the UK Hydrographic Office and published in 1839

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, September 2014.