Top 10 Lighthouses in North Carolina
The coast of North Carolina is among the most treacherous stretches of shoreline in the world. The Outer Banks — a chain of barrier islands stretching nearly 300 kilometres from the Virginia line to Cape Lookout — separate the sheltered sounds of Pamlico and Albemarle from the open Atlantic, and the confluence of the cold Labrador Current from the north and the warm Gulf Stream from the south creates a zone of unpredictable weather, shifting shoals, and violent storms. The Diamond Shoals off Cape Hatteras extend more than 24 kilometres into the Atlantic, and over the centuries the waters off the Banks earned the name "Graveyard of the Atlantic" — more than 3,000 recorded shipwrecks lie in these waters. The response was a series of lighthouses that include the tallest brick lighthouse in North America, the oldest lighthouse in the state, and towers whose paint patterns have become some of the most recognisable images in American maritime heritage. Open the map to trace the full chain from Currituck to Cape Lookout.
1. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Hatteras Island
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the tallest brick lighthouse in North America and one of the most famous in the world. The tower, completed in 1870 and designed by engineer Dexter Stetson under the supervision of the Lighthouse Board, stands 62.5 metres tall. Its distinctive black-and-white spiral stripe pattern makes it instantly identifiable as a daymark. The light character is a white flash every 7.5 seconds, visible for approximately 24 nautical miles — far enough to warn the fastest deepwater traffic of the Diamond Shoals ahead. The tower is managed by the National Park Service within Cape Hatteras National Seashore and is open for climbing from late spring through early autumn; the 257-step ascent is worth it for the view over the Outer Banks. In 1999, the entire 4,800-tonne lighthouse was moved 884 metres inland to protect it from the encroaching sea — one of the most ambitious engineering operations ever performed on a lighthouse.
2. Bodie Island Lighthouse, Dare County
Bodie Island Lighthouse stands in the marshes and dunes of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, about 10 kilometres north of Oregon Inlet. The current tower, completed in 1872 after two predecessors were destroyed — one by the Confederates during the Civil War — stands 49 metres tall in white-painted brick with a wide black band at mid-height. The light character is a white flash with a fixed white sector, visible for about 24 nautical miles, marking the approaches to Oregon Inlet and the dangerous shoals to the north. The National Park Service operates a visitor centre and museum in the double keeper's quarters at the base; the tower has been open for climbing since 2013. The surrounding wetlands are excellent for birding, and the lighthouse's reflection in the freshwater pond in front of it is a classic composition for photographers.
3. Currituck Beach Lighthouse, Corolla
Currituck Beach Lighthouse, built in 1875, is the northernmost lighthouse on the Outer Banks, filling the dark gap that existed north of Bodie Island. The tower stands 48 metres tall and was left in its natural red-brick finish — the only unplastered and unpainted brick lighthouse on the North Carolina coast, distinguishing it visually from the painted towers to its south. The light character is a red flash every 20 seconds, visible for about 18 nautical miles. The site is in the village of Corolla, once a remote outpost accessible only by four-wheel-drive along the beach, now reached by a paved road. The Outer Banks Conservationists manage the site and open the tower for climbing during summer months; the keeper's dwellings and outbuildings are beautifully preserved. The beaches north of Corolla, accessible only by 4WD, still carry herds of free-roaming Colonial Spanish Mustang horses.
4. Cape Lookout Lighthouse, Carteret County
Cape Lookout Lighthouse marks the southern end of the Core Banks section of the Outer Banks, at the tip of a long curved spit of sand extending into Lookout Bight. The tower, completed in 1859, stands 48.8 metres tall and is painted in a distinctive black-and-white diamond pattern — the only lighthouse on the Atlantic coast with this checkerboard daymark. The light character is a white flash every fifteen seconds, visible for about 24 nautical miles. Cape Lookout is accessible only by passenger ferry from Harkers Island, Beaufort, or Morehead City; there are no roads to the cape. The National Park Service manages Cape Lookout National Seashore; the lighthouse and surrounding buildings are staffed by rangers during the summer season, and the tower is open for climbing on selected days. The isolated beach below the lighthouse is one of the least developed on the entire Atlantic coast.
5. Ocracoke Lighthouse, Hyde County
Ocracoke Lighthouse on Ocracoke Island is the oldest operating lighthouse in North Carolina and the second-oldest in the United States. The white conical masonry tower was completed in 1823 and stands about 24 metres tall — modest by comparison with the great brick towers of the Outer Banks, but a working lighthouse that has guided mariners through Ocracoke Inlet for two centuries. The light character is a fixed white, visible for about 14 nautical miles. The lighthouse is managed by the National Park Service and the exterior grounds are open daily; the tower is not currently open for public climbing, though this policy has varied over the years. Ocracoke Island is accessible by ferry from Cedar Island, Swan Quarter, or Hatteras; the village is one of the most distinctive communities on the Outer Banks, with a working fishing harbour where Blackbeard the pirate was killed in 1718.
6. Bald Head (Old Baldy) Lighthouse, Brunswick County
Old Baldy on Bald Head Island is the oldest standing lighthouse in North Carolina, completed in 1817 at the southern entrance to the Cape Fear River. The white-painted octagonal tower stands about 30 metres tall; it served as the primary light for the Cape Fear entrance until superseded by the Cape Fear Lighthouse in 1903 and was decommissioned. The tower is now managed by the Old Baldy Foundation and is open for visits and climbing. Bald Head Island is car-free and accessible only by passenger ferry from Southport; a ferry crossing of about 20 minutes brings visitors to the island's golf-cart-traversed interior and the lighthouse in the historic village. The Cape Fear River approaches were among the most strategically significant on the Confederate coast during the Civil War, and the island's history includes significant fortification works from that period.
7. Cape Fear Lighthouse (Ruin), Brunswick County
The Cape Fear Lighthouse, completed in 1903 on Bald Head Island to replace Old Baldy, was a tall skeletal steel tower that stood for decades as the primary marker for the Cape Fear River entrance, one of the most commercially important on the southeastern US coast. The tower was demolished in 1958 after being superseded by a light vessel, and only concrete foundation ruins remain on the island. The history of the Cape Fear entrance lights — from the colonial-era Smith Island beacon through Old Baldy to the steel tower — illustrates the evolving demands of maritime commerce on the Cape Fear River, which served Wilmington, North Carolina's largest port city. The ruins are accessible on foot from the ferry landing on Bald Head Island.
8. Price's Creek Lighthouse (Ruin), Brunswick County
Price's Creek Lighthouse, a small brick tower built in 1849 on the western bank of the Cape Fear River, served as a range light for the river approach. It is now one of the most evocative ruins on the North Carolina coast — the lower section of the brick tower survives, standing in the marsh grass at the river's edge near Southport, largely unchanged since the Civil War. The lighthouse was used briefly by Confederate forces as a signal station, and the structure was essentially abandoned after the war. It is accessible by boat from Southport, and the surviving masonry conveys the modest, functional character of the mid-nineteenth-century lighthouse construction along this stretch of river.
9. Oak Island Lighthouse, Brunswick County
Oak Island Lighthouse, completed in 1958, is the most recently built traditional lighthouse on the North Carolina coast. The tower stands 56 metres tall in an unusual fluted concrete form painted in distinctive horizontal bands of white and black — a modernist design that sets it apart entirely from the brick towers of the Outer Banks. Its light character is four white flashes every ten seconds with a nominal range of about 24 nautical miles, making it one of the most powerful lights on the coast. The lighthouse is managed by the town of Caswell Beach; volunteer groups operate tours to the top on certain days. The Oak Island area, including the adjacent Long Beach community, is one of the more accessible sections of Brunswick County's coast for day visitors from Wilmington.
10. Georgetown Lighthouse (Ruin), South Carolina (near the NC border)
Though technically in South Carolina, Georgetown Lighthouse on North Island at the entrance to Winyah Bay is so closely linked to the maritime history of the Cape Fear coast that it merits acknowledgment here. The current lighthouse, built in 1812 and rebuilt in 1867, is the oldest lighthouse in South Carolina still standing. North Island is accessible only by boat; the lighthouse stands in a wildlife refuge where bald eagles nest. The approaches to Winyah Bay, Georgetown's harbour, were guarded by this tower throughout the era of South Carolina's rice and indigo trade and into the cotton and timber commerce of the nineteenth century.
Planning Your Visit
Cape Hatteras National Seashore is the most organised framework for visiting North Carolina's lighthouses — the visitor centres at Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras, and Ocracoke provide context, and the network of roads and ferries across the Outer Banks allows a multi-day lighthouse itinerary. Summer (June to August) is peak season; autumn (September to October) has better weather, fewer crowds, and the lighthouse climbing seasons are often extended. Ferry reservations are required for Cape Lookout and for the Swan Quarter/Cedar Island routes to Ocracoke. The North Carolina Lighthouse Society publishes maps and current visiting information. For a comprehensive map of all lighthouses along the Carolina coast, Open the map.