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The year 2019 marked exactly 40 years since the forts and castles of Ghana were inscribed on the World Heritage List. Officially known as the Forts and Castles Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions World Heritage Property, the site comprises twenty-eight (28) individual components (25 forts and 3 castles) spread across the four coastal regions of Ghana. They were listed under criterion (VI) of the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. In this presentation, the attempt is to present a historical journey of the forts and castles of Ghana from the time of their inscription on the World Heritage List in 1979 to the present. The presentation will discuss some of the most significant decisions, interventions, challenges, failures and successes within the broader contexts of ownership, management, conservation, community and stakeholder engagement, adherence to the Operational Guidelines and other international requirements, tourism development, and national development. This exercise is also an attempt at exploring and stirring conversations around the state party’s commitment to heritage preservation in general and the forts and castles in particular.