Portland Lighthouses – A Picture Perfect Experience in Maine

Portland Lighthouses - A Picture Perfect Experience in Maine

You can’t leave Maine without eating lobster or touring one of its 65 historic lighthouses. If Portland is your Maine destination, here’s everything you need to know about the Portland lighthouses.

For more than 200 years, lighthouses have stood tall along Maine’s rugged coast, helping sailors steer clear of shallow spots and avoid crashing into the Pine Tree State’s rocky shores. From the Portland Head Light, constructed when George Washington was President, to the Ladies Delight Light, first illuminated more than a century later, it’s easy to understand how Maine has earned the nickname “the Lighthouse State.”

Portland Head Light at sunset
Welcoming one million visitors each year, the Portland Head Light is Maine’s most visited lighthouse.

When you visit Maine’s largest city, take a few hours to tour all six of its lighthouses. Although this guide begins in Cape Elizabeth, a 20-30 minute drive south of Portland, and heads north back to the city, you can easily explore it in reverse. Driving between these Portland, Maine lighthouses will take about 30 minutes. Allowing at least 30 minutes to explore each stop, this Maine activity will take between two and a half to four hours.

Portland Lighthouse Map

How to Use This Map

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Sage Advice:  Explore more of Portland, Maine, with this interactive scavenger hunt.

    

Have You Visited Any Portland Lighthouses?

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Cape Elizabeth Lights

Both of the Cape Elizabeth Lights are on private property, but you can still take photos of these Portland lighthouses from afar.
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Start your tour where Cape Elizabeth juts out into lobster-filled Maine waters near Two Lights State Park. As the name suggests, this destination will treat you to not one but two Portland lighthouses. The twin Cape Elizabeth lighthouses were built in 1828. Despite the valiant effort of their lightkeepers, they witnessed several shipwrecks during the decades they served sailors. Unfortunately, both beacons are on private property, so you can’t get too close. But, you can still appreciate them from afar.

Sage Advice:  Look for brightly-colored buoys bobbing in the water around the point. They are used to mark lobster traps, and you might be able to see a lobsterman pull in traps as they do several times a week.

The lichen-covered stone along the coast looks like petrified wood.

Although it is on private property, the easternmost light tower is still active. For the best view of this Portland lighthouse, park near The Lobster Shack at Two Lights and walk along Dyer Cove. Here, long slabs of stone covered in golden lichen make a craggy foreground for the towering white light. The coastline looks as if it’s made of petrified wood, but it’s actually quartzite and dark grey phyllite.

Without disturbing the area, some visitors picked up flaked off pieces of quartzite and phyllite and “wrote” their names “on” the rocky shoreline.

Fun Fact:  If you get a sense of deja vu gazing at the Cape Elizabeth lighthouse, that might be because of artist Edward Hopper’s painting, The Lighthouse at Two Lights. On display at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the piece inspired a 1970 postage stamp celebrating Maine’s sesquicentennial.

The water along Maine’s beautiful, rugged coastline can be unpredictable. Be sure to read and follow the posted signs!

The other twin tower was decommissioned as a Maine lighthouse in 1924 and served as a fire control tower during World War II. Today it is a private home once owned by Gary Merrill, the fourth (and final) husband of Hollywood legend Bette Davis.

If you have the time, take a few minutes to stop at Two Lights State Park on your way to or from the Cape Elizabeth Lights. During World War II the park was known as the Cape Elizabeth Military Reservation. Although the threat of an attack from the Atlantic Ocean had dwindled by the time the fort was completed, visitors can still see the concrete bunkers and circular gun mounts.

Sage Advice:  One popular way to see Maine’s historic lighthouses is by taking a lighthouse road trip. If that’s your plan, the check out this ultimate road trip packing list.

Portland Head Light

Portland Head Light on a sunny day
Edward Hopper also completed a watercolor painting of the Portland Head Light. That piece is on display at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

Surrounded by 90 acres at Fort Williams Park, the Portland Head Light is the oldest (and perhaps the most famous) of all Portland lighthouses. Construction began back in 1787 when the United States was a brand new nation and Maine was still part of Massachusetts. Once the tower was built to the specified height of 58 feet, the two local masons constructing the lighthouse discovered that it was too short to be seen from the south. The plans were altered to add another 20 feet to the tower.

The view of the jagged Maine coastline from the Portland Head Light
On Christmas Eve 1886, the Annie C. Maguire crashed into the jagged rocks at the base of the Portland Head Light.

Visiting the Portland Head Light is the quintessential Maine experience. As you take in the postcard-perfect sight, breathe in the fresh ocean air and listen to the waves gently crashing below. You’ll also hear the deep monotone sound of the fog horn, even if only softly on a clear day.

The view of the Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse from the Portland Head Light
While taking in the beauty of the Portland Head Light, don’t overlook the Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse in Casco Bay. It was constructed in the early 1900s after the Californian steamship crashed into the rocky ledge.

Sage Advice:  If your itinerary allows, take some additional time to explore Fort Williams Park, the land surrounding the lighthouse. Although it is now largely in ruins, it was an operational Army fort from 1872 to 1964.

Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse

Visitors can walk a jagged, uneven sea wall out into the water to visit the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse.

To reach the next stop on the tour of Portland lighthouses, you must first wind through the oceanside campus of the Southern Maine Community College. I admire the willpower it must take the students to remain focused on their education in such a beautiful setting!

While it’s important to watch your step, take the time to walk the granite sea wall out to the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse.

If you haven’t yet stretched your legs, you’ll certainly want to allow time for that when you visit the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse. If you feel up to it, visitors are permitted to walk along the granite rock wall to the base of the light. But keep in mind, this is not a smoothly paved wall. Rather, it’s a 950-foot-long breakwater made by piling 45 tons of granite in the water between this Portland lighthouse and the dry land.

The sea wall from the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse.

Fun Fact:  With 5,000 miles (8,500 km) of shoreline, inlets, and islands, Maine has more coastline than California.

After walking the sea wall out to the lighthouse, explore the old fort wall nearby.

Consistent with the other Portland lighthouses, an old military fort is adjacent to the light tower. Built in 1808 of stone, brick, and sod, the original fort was established to protect the United States from the growing threat of attack from the United Kingdom and France. The fort’s hospital tended to released American prisoners of war during the War of 1812, and it was the headquarters of the 17th infantry during the Civil War. In 1952, the fort was sold to the State of Maine and the former fort has been a technical college ever since.

An old fort “window” with a view.

Sage Advice:  When visiting the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse, look to the east to see Fort Scammell on House Island. Named for Alexander Scammell, a Revolutionary War general, the island was nicknamed the “Ellis Island of the North” because it was used as an immigration quarantine station in the early 1900s.

Portland Breakwater Light (AKA Bug Light)

The Portland Breakwater Light is called “Bug Light” due to its small size.

Officially known as the Portland Breakwater Light, but often referred to as the Bug Light, this final, historic Portland lighthouse is also steeped in history. Originally a wooden structure, built in 1855, the Bug Light looks across the Casco Bay at Fort Gorges. The fort was built on the Hog Island Ledge around the same time, but 19th-century improvements in military technology rendered the fort obsolete before it could be used.

Honoring the workers who built Liberty Ships during World War II, the Liberty Ship Memorial is near the Bug Light.

Fast forwarding to World War II, the breakwater surrounding the lighthouse was filled in by the New England Shipbuilding Corporation to establish two shipyards next to the lighthouse. From 1941 to 1945, more than 30,000 people built 266 Liberty Ships, a special type of cargo ship used during the war. With the land built up around it, the lighthouse was unneeded. It was decommissioned in 1942.

During the four years that America was at war, 244 of these massive ships were built on this spot in Portland, Maine.

Fully restored and reactivated, today the Bug Light sits at the northernmost tip of eight-acre Bug Light Park that the lighthouse shares with the Liberty Ship Memorial. This ship-shaped steel structure honors the men and women who built Liberty Ships on the site during World War II.

Sage Advice: Are you craving more beautiful water views? Check out Capisic Pond, Clark Pond, or one of these other beautiful lakes in Southern Maine.

Have You Visited Any Of The Lighthouses In Portland, Maine?

Which lighthouse was your favorite? Any other history, tips, or advice to pass along about the Portland lighthouses? Share your experiences in the comments section below.

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