Daufuskie Island: Gullah Stories, Flavors & Traditions
By Hilton Head Insider
Ideal for: Experience lovers, cultural travelers, reader-explorers and foodies
Morning
- Climb aboard the Island Head Daufuskie Island Ferry and enjoy a scenic journey across the Lowcountry waters, check in for your golf cart rental.
- Head to Moses Ficklin Cottage & Oak Tree to see the enormous live oak said to have greeted Spanish explorers, set on the grounds of a restored Gullah home.
- Visit Bloody Point Lighthouse & Museum: learn about Indian battles of the early 1700s, climb the lighthouse (or explore the site), see the bald eagle nest, native gardens, the “Almost an Angel Oak,” and meet “Papy” the resident pond alligator.
Afternoon
- Lunch: Visit Sallie Ann Robinson, The Daufuskie Chef, a sixth‑generation Gullah native of Daufuskie, for a cooking demonstration or discussion of Gullah food traditions.
- Visit First Union African Baptist Church (established 1881), the oldest building on the island and deeply rooted in Gullah community life.
- Visit Mary Fields Cemetery, the largest Gullah cemetery on the island—with grave markers from 1926 to present—and learn how earlier graves were marked only by concave earth depressions.
- Visit Mary Dunn Cemetery, the only historic “white” cemetery on the island, with headstones dating to the 1700s.
- End your cart tour at Billie Burn Museum: showcases pre‑Colonial to mid‑20th century island history including land grants, old coins, arrowheads, a restored 1800s organ, photographs.
Evening
- Stop at Silver Dew Winery: housed in a rustic 1883 wick house for the lighthouse, later used in the 1950s for home‑made fruit wines by Arthur “Papy” Burn.
- Return your golf cart, catch the ferry back to Hilton Head Island.
- For groups staying overnight consider sunset cocktails or a relaxed dinner set against a backdrop of magnificent sunsets over the pristine Cooper river at Old Daufuskie Crab Co. Dine on the local shrimp, fish, Daufuskie Deviled Crab™, and all the ‘fixin’s.
- For those staying in the Strachan Mansion or a villa within Haig Point, don’t miss the tabby ruins of slave dwellings that once belonged to the Mongin-Blodgett Plantation.
More Trending Stories
Gullah Roots in Bluffton: A Day of Culture, Cuisine & Community
Ideal for: Cultural travelers, food lovers, history buffs, educators
The Girls’ Trip Guide to Gullah
Ideal for: Sisterhood retreats, sorority reunions, group getaways
