The Hilton Head Island Rear Range Lighthouse, also known as the Leamington Lighthouse, is located in the Leamington neighborhood of Palmetto Dunes Resort overlooking the Arthur Hills Golf Course. It was built between 1879 and 1880 as part of a larger system of navigation lights guiding ships to Port Royal Sound.
The Hilton Head Rear Range Light is the island’s one true lighthouse. Featured on the National Register of Historic Places and part of the Inventory of Historic Light Stations, the lighthouse occupies a unique place in Hilton Head Island history. One of only a handful of surviving lighthouses in South Carolina, the Hilton Head Rear Range Lighthouse is the only historic lighthouse on Hilton Head Island.
Today, only the 92-foot structure survives, along with a vintage brick oil house and a water cistern located on site alongside one of the oldest living oak trees on Hilton Head Island.
The lighthouse is free to the public to visit. The inside tower is closed and no longer accessible to the public to go up. Passes are not given after 5 p.m. and motorcycles are not allowed in Palmetto Dunes. Since the lighthouse is located on private property in a golf course environment, please be courteous to golfers and residents.
Open: Daily, 9 AM–5 PM.
