Dungeness Mansion ruins at Cumberland Island National Seashore
The Dungeness historic district is the most popular history-based stop for visitors to Cumberland Island National Seashore. Here you will find the ruins of Thomas and Lucy Carnegie’s Dungeness mansion and many service buildings they constructed during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The area lies one mile south of the Sea Camp ferry dock and only a half mile from the Dungeness dock, making it one of the only feasible stops on the island for day trippers to reach on foot.
The National Park Service offers the Footsteps Tour, a 1-hour guided tour of the Dungeness area that is held shortly after the morning ferry arrives at the Dungeness Dock. However, the National Park Service always adds the caveat “when staff is available.” Therefore, you may find yourself having to conduct your own self-guided tour.
A nine-stop Cell Phone Audio Tour that begins at the Dungeness dock provides basic information on the main buildings, but there are dozens of other ruins on the grounds. A few of these have wayside exhibits nearby that give a short history of the buildings, but plenty of them are unidentified. To remedy this situation, National Park Planner has put together a well-researched walking tour of the area. Stops correspond to those on the Cell Phone Audio Tour. The walking tour is 2.5 miles, one way.
When you reach the end of the tour, there are a few options to return, one being the same way that you came, creating roughly a 5-mile round-trip walk. You can also hike out to the beach at Dungeness and then continue north along the shore to Sea Camp Beach before cutting back inland to the Sea Camp dock to take the ferry back at the end of the day. This route is also 5 miles and takes about four hours, which includes a leisurely pace to see the buildings and the wild horses that are usually in the area. This time does not include picnicking, swimming, or sunbathing on the beach.
You can jump to any tour stop using the menu below. At the bottom of each page is a navigational menu that takes you to the next and previous tour stops.
Stop 1: Early Inhabitants
Stop 2: The Maritime Forest
Stop 3: Slavery on Cumberland Island
Stop 4: Dungeness Mansion
Stop 5: Tabby House
Stop 6: Dungeness Mansion Grounds
Stop 7: The Recreation Building
Stop 8: The Grange
Stop 9: The Service Village
Stop 10: Greene-Miller Cemetery
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Last updated on July 24, 2024
