Bulls Island is part of the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge. Coastal Expeditions runs a ferry to the island, as well as a variety of other tours there, which can all be booked at the link. I took the ferry which drops you off at the dock on the island giving one the opportunity to walk around the island for a 4-hour self-guided tour (I went in December). All tours leave from the dock at 498 Bulls Island Road in Awendaw. There is a large parking lot at the boat launch as well as restrooms.

The next series of four pictures is taken from the dock. It shows the intracoastal waterway (created after the war) and the marshes between the mainland and the island. These waterways were a part of the “inland passage” that blockade runners used when bringing rice from the Santee River plantations to Charleston.

My plan was to walk to the Old Fort which was on the left of the image about 2.5 miles from the dock. Form there I walked to the Observation Tower and then the Boneyard Beach. In total I probably walked about 7 miles.

There is also a tour where one can spend three nights and 2 days in the house on the island. The house is a post-war structure.

The next group of pictures is of a monument that commemorates where the first permanent European settlers landed in South Carolina.

It has been speculated that this may have been the foundation of a Martello fort. This seems unlikely given the complexity of a Martello fort shown below.

The subsequent pictures show the tabby foundation, all that is left, of the fort in white.

Along the road were retention ponds that were used to maintain freshwater habitats for ducks. The wooden gates were used to keep salt water from entering the pond.

I next walked up Big Pond Road to the beach.

I headed north to the Boneyard Beach

I walked back to the boat via Big Pond Road. It turned out I was being watched (upper right of picture below).