WayfarrowNew Castle County, Delaware Lighthouse Road Trip: 7 Lights in One Day
7 stops137 milesabout 3 hr 48 min of drivingNew Castle County, Delaware
This route strings together seven Delaware lighthouses in a single day, starting in Sussex County at Fenwick Island and working into New Castle County to finish at the Marcus Hook Range Rear Light. It covers 137 miles with just under four hours of driving. The longest leg is the 65.4-mile run from the Delaware Breakwater to Reedy Island. The towers span about six decades, from Fenwick Island, finished in 1858, to Marcus Hook, dated anywhere from 1915 to 1920. Five are range lights, three are skeletal towers, and three record the Delaware River or Delaware Bay as their water. Several have gone dark over the years: Fenwick Island in 1978, the Breakwater light in 1996, Bellevue in 2000 or 2001 and Marcus Hook in 2019. Liston's front light hasn't been active since about 1953. Start early, since the stops are spread out, and check access locally before you go.
Route and drive times from OpenStreetMap routing (OSRM). Times are estimates without stops; roads to remote sites can be unpaved or seasonal.
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1. Fenwick Island Light
Sussex County, Delaware · built 1858
Lionsatthegate37 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 Delaware's oldest lighthouse gets the day underway. Fenwick Island Light was finished in December 1858 and first lit on August 1, 1859. It's usually given as 87 ft tall, though the National Register form measures it at 84 ft 5 in to the ventilator ball. The light was deactivated in 1978, and the tower is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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↓ 28.4 miles, about 57 min
2. Delaware Breakwater East End Light
Sussex County, Delaware · built 1885
Smallbones / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain After 28.4 miles, roughly 57 minutes of driving, you reach the Delaware Breakwater East End Light, an 1885 cast-iron spark-plug tower. It was deactivated in 1996 and now carries a decorative light. Sources can't agree on its height, quoting either 49 or 56 ft, so it's worth treating any single figure you see with some caution.
Facts, map and sources for Delaware Breakwater East End Light →
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↓ 65.4 miles, about 1 hr 39 min
3. Reedy Island Range Rear Light
New Castle County, Delaware · built 1910
Unknown authorUnknown author / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain The longest leg of the day, 65.4 miles and about 99 minutes, brings you into New Castle County and the Reedy Island Range Rear Light. This working cast-iron skeletal tower was first lit on July 27, 1910, and its focal height is 135 ft. Sources put the tower itself at 110 ft or about 125 ft. Its keeper's house burned in 2002, and the federal government has listed it for sale.
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↓ 9.9 miles, about 19 min
4. Liston Range Front Light
New Castle County, Delaware
Only 9.9 miles on, about 19 minutes, Liston Range Front Light is a two-story frame house with a lantern on top, now a private residence. It hasn't been an active light since about 1953, when the light moved to a skeletal tower on the front lawn. Wikipedia dates it to 1906, while Lighthousefriends says the house was finished in 1908 and first lit December 28, 1908.
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↓ 6.2 miles, about 11 min
5. Liston Range Rear Light
New Castle County, Delaware · built 1877
Eleven minutes and 6.2 miles further, Liston Range Rear Light is a 120 ft iron skeletal tower built in 1876 to 1877 for the old Port Penn range. It was moved inland to its current site in 1906 to 1907. It still has its second-order Fresnel lens, with a focal height of 177 ft. One source dates it to 1876 rather than 1877.
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↓ 20.7 miles, about 29 min
6. Bellevue Range Rear Light
New Castle County, Delaware · built 1909
Bellevue Range Rear Light, 20.7 miles and about 29 minutes from Liston, is a 104 ft skeletal tower from 1909 that ended up sitting on a landfill. As the landfill grew, it blocked the light, and the tower was shut off in 2000 or 2001, depending on the record. A modern tower nearby now carries the active range light. The 1909 tower is listed on the National Register.
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↓ 6.1 miles, about 13 min
7. Marcus Hook Range Rear Light
New Castle County, Delaware
The final leg is short, 6.1 miles and about 13 minutes, to the Marcus Hook Range Rear Light. Its 105 ft concrete tower is listed on the National Register and was switched off in June 2019, when a new skeletal rear light was built in the river. Dating it is tricky: sources give 1915, 1918, 1919 or 1920. The station itself began in 1915 with a temporary light.
Every stop on this route links to its own page with coordinates, sourced facts and image licences. The text above was written from those records and checked against them before publishing. More lighthouses: all lighthouses in Delaware.