The Currituck Beach Light Station will open for the 2022 climbing season on Saturday, March 19 and visitors can climb for free on opening day.
Visitors may climb 220 steps to the top for breathtaking views of the exquisite architecture, the Atlantic Ocean, and Currituck Sound while learning from docents and museum-quality exhibits about the active aid to navigation’s significance, the lives of lighthouse keepers, and the original first-order Fresnel lens.
The light station is located in Historic Corolla next to the Historic Corolla Park, home to Historic Whalehead, the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education, and the new maritime museum. Public beach and sound access are both within walking distance.
On December 1, 1875 the beacon of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse filled the remaining “dark space” on the coast between the Bodie Island Lighthouse (which is an architectural twin) and Cape Henry Lighthouse in Virginia. To distinguish the 162’ tall lighthouse from others, its exterior was left unpainted which conveys a sense of the multitude of bricks used to build it. People who want to climb the tower frequently may want a season pass – good also at the Island Farm on Roanoke Island which opens on April 5, 2022.
The cost to climb the lighthouse is $12. Climbers must be at least 4 years old to climb. Fees support ongoing restoration of the 146-year-old Light Station.
Most recently iron in the tower’s lower bands, windows, and roof cornice was repaired or recast/replaced and dissimilar metals around the glass of the lantern were separated and isolated to prevent rust jacking.
Our keepers have spent the winter planting native plants, scanning old paper files for a digital maintenance timeline, updating displays, as well as repainting the storehouse on the grounds and the iron galleries at the top of the lighthouse.
We look forward to seeing you this season.
The Currituck Beach Lighthouse is owned and operated by Outer Banks Conservationists, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 1980 to protect natural, cultural, and historic resources along North Carolina’s Outer Banks through education and conservation of a sense of place. For more information, visit www.obcinc.org, email info@obcinc.org or call 252-453-4939.