Outer Bank Lighthouses

For more than two centuries, lighthouses have guarded the Outer Banks coast. Generations of seaborne travelers and mariners have sought the comfort of these beacons' reassuring light as they navigated perilous channels and shoals that mark the Graveyard of the Atlantic. There are 5 lighthouses on the Outer Banks

Bodie Island Lighthouse
Currituck Beach Lighthouse
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Ocracoke Lighthouse
The Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, also known as America's Lighthouse, is the tallest brick beacon in the country standing 208 feet. The familiar black and white spiral-striped landmark serves as a warning to mariners of submerged and shifting sandbars, which extend almost twenty miles off Cape Hatteras into the Atlantic Ocean. They are known as the Diamond Shoals.

Ocracoke Lighthouse

The Ocracoke Lighthouse is North Carolina's oldest operating lighthouse. In 1798, a 54 foot wooden tower was built on the point of Ocracoke Inlet to mark the channel. Soon afterward, the inlet shifted, rendering the lighthouse ineffective. It was replaced by a light vessel in the inlet in 1820, but by 1822 this structure was rendered useless yet again by shifting sands, and Congress authorized the funding to build the present tower, which stands 75 feet tall and shines 14 miles out to sea. As a harbor light, it emits a constant fixed beam