North Light

Sandy Point reaches out from the north end of Block Island into waters where currents and shifting shoals have wrecked countless ships over the centuries. The hazard was serious enough that the government built a light here in 1829, but the ever-moving sand and erosion defeated one tower after another.

The lighthouse standing today is the fourth, completed in 1867 and built of durable Connecticut granite to withstand the exposure that had doomed its predecessors. Its solid, boxy form, with the tower rising from the keeper's dwelling, was made for endurance rather than elegance, and it has held its ground on the point for over a century and a half.

There is no road to North Light. From the end of Corn Neck Road, visitors walk out along the beach for roughly a mile, over soft sand and rounded cobbles, with the ocean on both sides as the spit narrows toward the point. It is a moderate trek that keeps the crowds thin and makes the arrival feel earned.

Along the way the character of the island's wild side reveals itself: dune grass, driftwood, and the constant work of wind and wave. The effort of the walk, and the absence of any services at the end, are exactly what preserve the sense of solitude that makes the point special.

Sandy Point and its surrounding waters form a national wildlife refuge, and the area is one of the best places on the island to see wildlife. In the cooler months harbor seals haul out on the sand and rocks near the point, and the beach and shallows draw gulls, terns, sandpipers, and migrating shorebirds in large numbers.

Because it is protected habitat, visitors are asked to give nesting birds and resting seals a wide berth and to stay off marked dune areas. Block Island as a whole is a major stopover on the Atlantic flyway, and the north end is one of its richest corners for birds.

Block Island is a glacial island, a heap of clay, sand, and boulders left by the ice age and then cut off from the mainland as the seas rose. Sandy Point is the northern edge of that pile, constantly rebuilt and reshaped by the currents that sweep around it, which is why lighthouses here have never been able to trust the ground.

The Manisseans, the island's Native people related to the Niantic and Narragansett, knew these shores for thousands of years before the lighthouses came, and the Narragansett Tribe remains part of Rhode Island today. The endless remaking of Sandy Point is a reminder that this island is a living, moving thing rather than a fixed piece of land.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.