Top 10 Lighthouses in the Outer Banks
Few stretches of coastline in North America have exacted a higher toll on shipping than the Outer Banks of North Carolina. These narrow barrier islands, curving seaward into the Atlantic between Virginia and Cape Lookout, create a collision point where the warm Gulf Stream meets the cold Labrador Current, generating fog, violent storms and the perpetually migrating shoals of Diamond Shoals. Sailors named this region the Graveyard of the Atlantic — an estimate suggests more than 5,000 vessels have been lost here since European settlement. The lighthouses built along this chain are among the most celebrated in American history, their towers rising high above the flat, windswept islands to cast light across some of the most dangerous waters on the eastern seaboard. Open the map to see the full distribution of lights along this coast.
1. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Hatteras Island
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, completed in 1870 to designs by engineer Dexter Stetson, is the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States at 63 metres (198 feet). Its distinctive black and white spiral-stripe daymark makes it instantly recognisable. The light — Fl W 7.5s, visible 24 nautical miles — guards Diamond Shoals, the submerged sandbar extending 14 miles offshore where the Gulf Stream and Labrador Current meet in often treacherous conditions. An earlier tower on the site, built in 1803, proved too short and poorly situated; the current tower's great height was a deliberate response to the extraordinary reach of the shoals. In 1999, the entire structure was moved 870 metres inland to prevent undermining by erosion — one of the most ambitious lighthouse relocations ever undertaken. It is open for climbing from April through October.
2. Bodie Island Lighthouse, Bodie Island
Bodie Island Lighthouse, the third tower on this site, was completed in 1872 and designed by Dexter Stetson, who also built Cape Hatteras. The 50-metre tower displays horizontal black and white bands — a daymark that clearly distinguishes it from its spiral-striped neighbor to the south. Its light (Fl(2+1) W 30s, 19 nautical miles) marks the shifting inlets between Bodie Island and the open ocean at the northern entrance to Oregon Inlet. The tower stands within Cape Hatteras National Seashore and is surrounded by freshwater marshes attractive to migrating waterfowl. The adjacent keeper's quarters, a substantial two-story Victorian structure, has been restored by the National Park Service and now houses an exhibition on lighthouse history. The tower reopened for climbing in 2013 after a restoration programme.
3. Currituck Beach Lighthouse, Corolla
Built in 1875 to fill a 78-mile gap in lighthouse coverage between Bodie Island and Cape Henry, Virginia, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse rises 49 metres from the northern Outer Banks and retains its original unpainted red brick — deliberately left bare to distinguish it from the painted towers to the south. The first-order Fresnel lens originally installed, a magnificent multi-tonne optic, remains in place and in operation; the light character is Fl W 20s, range 18 nautical miles. The lighthouse is operated by the nonprofit Outer Banks Conservationists, who manage the keeper's complex and open the tower for climbing seasonally. The surrounding Currituck Heritage Park includes the restored Victorian keeper's dwelling. The wild horses of Corolla, feral descendants of colonial-era Spanish stock, roam the beach a short distance north.
4. Cape Lookout Lighthouse, Core Banks
Cape Lookout Lighthouse stands at the southern terminus of the Outer Banks chain, on Core Banks, a remote barrier island accessible only by ferry from Harkers Island or Beaufort. Built in 1859 by contractor Asa Doolittle to replace an ineffective earlier tower, the 62-metre structure carries the distinctive black-and-white diamond daymark pattern unique on the Atlantic coast. Its light (Fl W 15s, 25 nautical miles) marks Cape Lookout Shoals, another extension of the Outer Banks' submerged hazards into shipping lanes. The tower is part of Cape Lookout National Seashore and is open for climbing when staffing permits; the keeper's complex houses a small museum. The isolation of Core Banks — no roads, no commercial development, wild ponies on Shackleford Banks nearby — makes a visit feel genuinely remote.
5. Ocracoke Lighthouse, Ocracoke Island
The Ocracoke Lighthouse, completed in 1823, is the oldest active lighthouse in North Carolina and the second-oldest in continuous use on the entire east coast. Its white-painted brick tower stands only 24 metres — the modest height reflecting Ocracoke Inlet's relatively contained hazards compared to the great capes — but the tower's simple cylindrical elegance has made it one of the most photographed on the Outer Banks. The light (Fl W 10s, 14 nautical miles) guides vessels through Ocracoke Inlet into Pamlico Sound. The keeper's quarters, a handsome white frame building, is used as housing for National Park Service staff and is not open to the public; the tower itself is not climbable but can be closely approached on foot. Ocracoke is reached by free ferry from Hatteras village or toll ferry from Swan Quarter and Cedar Island.
6. Cape Henry Lighthouse, Virginia Beach
Technically just north of the Outer Banks' North Carolina section, Cape Henry Lighthouse stands at the southern entrance to the Chesapeake Bay and was the first lighthouse authorised by the new United States government, completed in 1792 at the direction of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. The sandstone tower, 29 metres tall, guided vessels for nearly a century before being decommissioned in 1881 when the adjacent new Cape Henry Lighthouse took over. The old tower, now maintained by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, is open to visitors within Fort Story, an active military installation requiring ID for civilian access. The new lighthouse (1881), a 49-metre cast-iron tower with a Fl(3) W 20s light of 25 nautical miles, remains active under Coast Guard management.
7. Portsmouth Island Lighthouse (Portsmouth Village), Core Banks
Portsmouth Village, the abandoned settlement at the northern end of Core Banks, once hosted a lighthouse that served the important Portsmouth Inlet. The current marker is a smaller navigation aid rather than a full lighthouse tower, but the area's maritime history — the village was a major lightering port in the nineteenth century, where goods were transferred from deep-draft vessels to shallow-draft boats for the inland waterways — places it firmly in any serious survey of Outer Banks lighthouse heritage. The deserted village, maintained by the National Park Service as a historic site, is accessible by private boat or charter ferry from Ocracoke. Its empty streets and overgrown church give a haunting illustration of the communities that once orbited these navigational stations.
8. Hatteras Inlet, Dare County
The light station serving Hatteras Inlet, the critical passage between Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island, has gone through multiple configurations over the decades as the inlet itself has shifted and widened. The current navigation lights — a system of channel markers rather than a classic lighthouse tower — continue the centuries-old function of guiding vessels through an inlet that is both indispensable for inter-island ferry traffic and subject to continuous change from storm and longshore drift. The free vehicle ferry between Hatteras and Ocracoke crosses this inlet multiple times daily, and the sense of moving water — strong tidal currents, the smell of salt marsh, pelicans overhead — is an education in why precise navigation marks matter here.
9. Diamond Shoals Light, Offshore
Diamond Shoals itself, the submerged sandspit extending roughly 14 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, was once marked by a lightship — the Diamond Shoals lightship, which famously survived being rammed by a German U-boat in 1918. Today a large offshore buoy replaces the lightship, marking the outermost edge of the shoals. The Texas Tower structure once proposed for this location was never built; the hostile conditions that make Diamond Shoals so deadly — breaking seas in storms, shoaling to as little as three metres — made any fixed structure a severe engineering challenge. The area represents the concentrated hazard that drove all of North Carolina's lighthouse construction, and the names of the lost ships in local maritime museums speak plainly to its cost.
10. Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse, Manteo
The Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse at Manteo on Roanoke Island is a reconstruction, opened in 2004, of the screw-pile cottage-style light that marked the southern entrance to Croatan Sound between 1877 and 1955. The original was destroyed by ice; the replica, built from the original plans, sits at the Manteo waterfront and now functions as a maritime heritage exhibit operated by the North Carolina Maritime Museum. The cottage-on-stilts design — typical of the Chesapeake and Albemarle region's shoal-water lighthouses — contrasts dramatically with the tall brick towers of the outer coast, illustrating how the Sound's sheltered but shallow conditions demanded an entirely different engineering solution. Interior access is free; the lighthouse is a short walk from downtown Manteo.
Spring and autumn are the best seasons to visit the Outer Banks lighthouses: temperatures are moderate, crowds are thinner, and the light is better for photography than the harsh summer midday sun. Summer brings the warmest weather and the longest opening hours for climbs, but also significant traffic on NC-12, the only road along much of the island chain. The ferries to Ocracoke and Core Banks add travel time but reward with genuine remoteness. Open the map to plan your route through this extraordinary concentration of American lighthouse heritage.