Lighthouses, Cairns and a Castle – Seacoast New Hampshire

A Road Trip To The Seacoast

With only 13 miles of coastline, New Hampshire has to squeeze a lot into a little space. I’m going to squeeze it a little more and just take a look at a tiny piece of it.

Route 1A provides a wonderful scenic ride along the ocean. Stopping at the last parking area on the route, it’s just a short scramble over the rocks to behold a magnificent ocean view. Looking to the south is Rye Beach and Odiorne State Park is to the north. I'll save Odiorne Park for another visit. There’s no sandy beach here, so it’s a great place to enjoy the ocean and avoid the crowd.

The ocean is barely visible beyond the rocky coast

Looking south

The seaside foliage along the coast

Bees hard at work gathering nectar.

A view down the rocky coastline. Wallis Sands State Beach is in the distance.

Rock sculptures called cairns placed by random visitors adorn the beach

The cairns give the area a surrealistic feel.

More cairns

After our brief ocean stop, we head out to see Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse. Although there are no tours and you can’t physically get to the lighthouse, you can get close and to do so, you get to visit Fort Constitution. The fort is located within the Portsmouth Harbor Coast Guard Station in New Castle. The fort is listed on the National Register of Historical Places. Originally named Fort William and Mary during colonial times, it became known as Fort Castle after the Revolutionary War. It was rebuilt in the early 1800’s and renamed Fort Constitution. It was armed and manned during the War of 1812. The Civil War, World War I and World War II.

The Coast Guard Station

A dedication plaque at Fort Constitution

The keystone from 1808.

The Sentry Room

View through one of the tunnels

A gun battery

A view of the harbor from inside the battery. Whaleback Lighthouse is the small speck in the middle of the photo.

Portsmouth Harbor Light behind the wall

Portsmouth Harbor Light behind the buildings

Portsmouth Harbor Light as close as I could get.

From New Castle, it’s off to Portsmouth. I choose to avoid the congestion of downtown and drove over and parked on Pierce Island. Here, there are great views of the city, the harbor and the shipyard.

The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard originally build sailing warships, then submarines. Now, submarines are repaired and overhauled there. Even though it is named the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, it is actually located in Kittery, Maine.

The Shipyard. The large blue building in the center of the photo is the former building way. When submarines were constructed here, they were assembled in that building and launched through one of the large black doors.

Another view of the shipyard.

The Castle. The former naval prison located on the shipyard. It is nicknamed the Castle.

The commercial fishing pier on Pierce Island.

The last stop, while not in New Hampshire, is a must see and only a short drive up to Cape Neddick, Maine. The lighthouse was placed in service in 1879 and is still in operation today. It is situated on its own tiny island known as the “nubble”.