Get Your Free 2024 Vacation Guide

Start planning your ultimate South Carolina adventure with a free copy of the 2024 Vacation Guide. Request your free copy, view the guide online or download a PDF version below.

Vacation Guide Cover
View Our Other Guides

See Historic Cape Romain Lighthouses at Seewee Center

Marie McAden Marie McAden
A former staffer with The Miami Herald, Marie moved to SC in 1992. She is passionate about the outdoors, and enjoys exploring the state’s many natural treasures from the Lowcountry to the Upstate.
More from "Marie McAden"
It's a 6-mile boat ride to the historic Cape Romain lighthouses.

Six times a year, the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge offers tours to two historic lighthouses located on an island off the coast of McClellanville.

The 6-mile boat ride to the lighthouse station takes participants through a pristine salt marsh and estuary where you'll have the chance to view a wide array of birds and marine life, including the ever-popular bottlenose dolphin.

Visitors can view the spiral staircase inside the original Cape Romain lighthouse.

The first of the two structures was built in 1827 to direct sailors away from treacherous shoals that lie just below the water level 9 miles southeast of the Cape Romain islands.

Standing 65-feet high, the truncated conical brick structure featured a stationary red light powered by a whale oil wick lamp. Even though the light was aimed right at the shoals, shipwrecks continued to be reported through the 1830s.

Visitors on the Cape Romain Lighthouse tour can view both of the 19th century lighthouses located on an island in the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge.

A second, taller lighthouse was built in 1857. The octagonal brick structure rose to 154 feet and featured a five-wick oil lamp with a rotating prismatic lens that focused the amount of light that went out to sea.

Up until the 1930s when the oil lamp was replaced with an electrical system, the lights were maintained by keepers who lived on the island year round. In 1947 when coastal navigation technology made lighthouses obsolete, the light was taken out of service. The keeper's house and several other supporting buildings were dismantled in 1964

Over the latter part of the 20th century, the lighthouses fell into disrepair. Restoration of the structures - listed on the National Register of Historic Places - began in 1989 and continues today.

The original 65-foot conical brick lighthouse constructed in 1827 stands near the taller 154-foot lighthouse built 30 years later.

The tour begins with a presentation on the history of the lighthouses at the Sewee Visitor and Environmental Center in Awendaw. Following the 9:30 a.m. program, you'll drive out to the boat landing at McClellanville to board Coastal Expeditions' Island Cat Ferry. On the 45-minute ride out to Lighthouse Island, experienced naturalists will tell you about the area's estuaries, where freshwater from rivers and streams meet and mix with saltwater from the ocean. The plankton-rich waters support an abundance and diversity of wildlife, including fish, crab and lobster.

Once on the island, guests will have the option of walking to both lighthouses for an up-close view. 

Call Coastal Expeditions at (843) 884-7684 or click here to make your reservation or find out more.

Marie McAden
A former staffer with The Miami Herald, Marie moved to SC in 1992. She is passionate about the outdoors, and enjoys exploring the state’s many natural treasures from the Lowcountry to the Upstate.