Monhegan Island

Earlier this month we drove from the Cape up to Maine’s mid coast. Our destination was Port Clyde where we had reservations on the 10:30 AM boat to Monhegan Island. The trip, under cloudy skies, took about an hour. The seas were choppy but bearable and our companions on the boat were “BIRDERS” easily identified by their binoculars and bird identification books.

A friend of mine had sent me some material a few years ago which spoke of Monhegan Island and we were off to see if the island lived up to the description.

Monhegan lies about ten miles off the Maine coast. It is about a mile long and a mile and a half long. There are some 75 year round residents on the island mostly folks in the fishing industry and artists. During the summer there are a lot of day trippers and this weekend there were a good number of birders. We were about a week early in terms of the island being completely open but the two ‘general’ stores provided the essentials and a few restaurants were open. We stayed in an apartment (Brackett’s Oar House) which was delightful. It was clean and cozy and located right on a small beach facing Manana Island.

The light on Monhegan is wonderful which perhaps explains the number of artists on the island. We want to go back and prepare early for sunrise shots from the hill near the lighthouse and keeper’s house which is now a museum.

All in all this is a wonderful place.