Barnwell Tabby, Hilton Head Island
A restored 1760s tabby ruin off Squire Pope Road, the oldest standing building on the island, privately owned and open for tours by request.
- Built
- About 1760
- Material
- Tabby: lime, sand, water and oyster shell
- Restored
- 2009 to 2018
- Visits
- By request, groups and tours
The Barnwell Tabby is a tabby ruin on the north end of Hilton Head Island, near Squire Pope Road and a few miles from Mitchelville. Dating places its walls in the 1760s, which makes it the oldest standing building found on the island; only the island’s Native American shell rings are older. It stands on land the Barnwell family has owned and cared for since the 1930s.
What It Was
Tabby is the Lowcountry’s colonial concrete: lime burned from oyster shell, mixed with sand, water and whole shells, and poured in layers. For years the building was thought to date from the early 1800s and to belong to Cotton Hope Plantation. Newer luminescence dating moved it back to the mid-1700s, and historians now think it was most likely Henry Ladson’s plantation house on the Marabuoy property, a question research is still working through. Excavations around it have turned up about 400 artifacts.
The Restoration
After nearly three centuries of weather, the walls were crumbling. Thomas Barnwell Jr., whose father bought the land, began a family-funded restoration in 2009, rebuilding damaged sections with new tabby and covering the structure with a wooden pavilion roof; the work was finished in 2018.
Visiting
The site is private property and has no public hours. It welcomes scheduled groups, from school classes and historical societies to tour parties, with guided talks on tabby, the archaeology and island history. Request a tour through the Barnwell Tabby website; please don’t visit unannounced.
More Island History
See Hilton Head history for the island’s forts, plantations and Gullah story, and Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park, a short drive away.
More Hilton Head history
Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park, on the site of the first self-governed town of freed people in the US: free trail, exhibits and guided tours.
Hilton Head Island history from 4,000-year-old shell rings and Captain William Hilton to the Civil War, Gullah Geechee communities and Sea Pines.
Fort Mitchel is a Civil War earthwork on Skull Creek in Hilton Head Plantation. Its history, why it was built and how to visit by gate pass or tour.
Gullah Geechee culture on Hilton Head: who the Gullah people are, their language and food, the Gullah Museum, Mitchelville, and Gullah heritage tours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Updated
What is the Barnwell Tabby?
A restored tabby ruin from about 1760 on Hilton Head’s north end, the oldest standing building found on the island.
Can you visit the Barnwell Tabby?
Yes, by request. It is on private land with no public hours; groups and tours are arranged through the Barnwell Tabby website.
How old is the Barnwell Tabby?
Luminescence dating places it in the 1760s, about 60 years earlier than once thought.
What is tabby?
A colonial building material of lime, sand, water and oyster shell, poured in layers. It is found across the Lowcountry.
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