The ever-shifting battalion of sandbars, or shoals, lurking beneath the waters that surround Nantucket have caused between 700 and 800 shipwrecks in recorded history. All three of Nantucket’s lighthouses were originally built as navigational tools, but today, modern technology has rendered the island’s most iconic lighthouse useful only for our viewing pleasure. For those who arrive on Nantucket via ferry, the lighthouse on Brant Point (officially named Brant Point Light) is the little wooden welcome Read more...

The name of this lighthouse is derived from the language of the Native Americans who lived on Nantucket, the Wampanoags. Their word “sankoty” means highland, and even erosion hasn’t changed the appropriateness of that name. The brick-and-granite structure sits 70 feet tall on the bluff at the end of what is now Baxter Road in Siasconset, flashing its white light every 7.5 seconds. The stalwart lighthouse was built in 1850, and has not been replaced. Read more...

At the northernmost point of the island out past Wauwinet, within the Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Reserve, you’ll find the most powerful light in New England! Officially named the Nantucket Light, it was first erected in 1784 as a wooden tower. A fire destroyed the little wooden lighthouse in 1816, and so a second tower – this time made of stone – was built in 1818. The stone tower fell over in 1984, but the third time Read more...