Castine ME Maine
Frequently Asked Questions
At the town pier, or at anchor off the village for vessels that can't tie up. Castine sits at the tip of a Penobscot Bay peninsula and has an unusually deep anchorage.
Entirely. The village is small and the history starts at the gangway. Dozens of historical markers line the sidewalks, telling three centuries of successive occupations house by house.
Because France, the Netherlands, Great Britain and the United States each held it. Few American villages can say the same: the strategic position and deep anchorage were contested for two centuries.
A heritage loop — pier, main street, Fort George, back past the old homes — or a nature loop to the Dyce Head lighthouse and Witherle Woods. A lobster roll at the dockside snack bar rounds out either.
The grassy earthworks of a British fortification raised in 1779. This is where the Penobscot Expedition played out, one of the worst American naval disasters of the Revolution. The site is free to visit, and the commanding view over the harbour entrance explains everything.
Because the diseases that wiped out the species elsewhere in America largely spared the peninsula. The streets run under vaults of branches shading Federal and Georgian homes behind white fences.
A maritime college founded in 1941, based in Castine. Its uniformed cadets pass visitors on the sidewalks, and its training ship, moored at the main pier when not at sea, dominates the waterfront.
Yes, at Wadsworth Cove beach, but the water barely rises above bracing, even in August. It's an energising dip rather than a swim. Shell collectors and weekend painters share the shore.
US dollars and English. The village is small: keep cash for the dockside snack bar and small shops.
June through October. The fall colours over Penobscot Bay are famous, but the sea air stays cool all season: a sweater or windbreaker helps.
