Ridgeland, South Carolina

Ridgeland, South Carolina, sits on I-95 in the middle of Jasper County, about halfway between Savannah and Beaufort. It is the county seat, so the courthouse and the county offices are here, along with a short Main Street of diners, taquerias and a coffee shop. The town was first called Gopher Hill and took the name Ridgeland from the sandy ridge of high ground it is built on.

Most visitors meet Ridgeland from the interstate: Exit 21 runs straight onto Main Street, and Exit 22 meets US 17. The town limits also reach east into Beaufort County, so some homes and restaurants with a Ridgeland address sit out along SC 170, near Sun City and Okatie. For a day trip from Hilton Head, it is about 30 miles and 40 minutes by car.

The best free thing to do in Ridgeland is the Blue Heron Nature Center, on Bailey Lane just west of Exit 21. A trail and a boardwalk loop through the woods and along a lake where herons feed, and a small nature center sits by the trailhead. Ralph Tuten Park, across the street, has a fountain and a heron sculpture.

On Jacob Smart Boulevard, the Morris Center for Lowcountry Heritage covers the history and culture of Jasper County and the Lowcountry, and admission is free. In October, the pumpkin patch Ridgeland SC families know best is Holiday Farms, and families drive up from Bluffton and Hilton Head for it too. Check each one’s hours before you go, since they change with the season.

Ridgeland eats like a Southern county seat. Fiddlers has fried seafood and hush puppies on Main Street, Eats and Sweets is the diner with the milkshakes, and there are three or four taquerias within a few blocks. Out on SC 170 near Sun City, Pistol Jo’s smokes ribs and Kyra cooks a Mediterranean-leaning menu. Our Ridgeland restaurants guide has every one with its reviews.

Homes in Ridgeland come with more land and a longer drive than homes closer to the island. Our Ridgeland homes for sale page lists every active home and lot from the MLS, with searches for neighborhoods such as The Groves at Bees Creek, Hunt Club and Fox Chase.

Jasper County SC is the southernmost county in South Carolina, formed in 1912 from parts of Beaufort and Hampton counties and named for Sergeant William Jasper, a Revolutionary War hero. Ridgeland is the seat, and Hardeeville is the largest city. The county had 28,791 people in the 2020 census, spread over about 655 square miles of land, much of it pine forest, farms and marsh.

The Savannah River forms the county’s southwest edge, and part of the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge lies inside it. Besides Ridgeland and Hardeeville, the county takes in Okatie’s Jasper side, Pineland, Coosawhatchie and Gillisonville, and the northern sections of Sun City Hilton Head. Two well-known names come from here: Thomas Heyward Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Henry Martyn Robert, who wrote Robert’s Rules of Order.

The Ridgeland SC zip code is 29936, and it covers the town and the country around it; a few addresses north of town use 29912. The area codes are 843 and 854. Three I-95 exits serve Ridgeland: Exit 18 to the south, Exit 21 onto Main Street (SC 336) and Exit 22 at US 17. US 278 leaves town on Grays Highway toward Bluffton and Hilton Head. Children go to Ridgeland Elementary and Ridgeland-Hardeeville High School.