Ford’s Shell Ring Park: A 4,000-Year-Old Hilton Head Shell Ring

Opened

October 16, 2026

Age

about 4,000 years

Setting

6.8 wooded acres on Skull Creek

Listed

National Register of Historic Places

Where

north end, off Squire Pope Road

Ford’s Shell Ring Park is a quiet wooded park on the north end of Hilton Head Island, built around two of the oldest things on the island: a pair of shell rings left by the first people who lived here, about 4,000 years ago. The Town of Hilton Head Island and Beaufort County bought the land in 2003 to keep it from being built on, and opened it to the public on October 16, 2026, with trails, parking and signs.

What a Shell Ring Is

A shell ring is a low, round ridge made of oyster, clam and mussel shells and animal bones, built up over years by people who lived on the coast in what archaeologists call the Late Archaic period. The Ford’s rings are about as old as the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Today the ridges are only a few feet high and covered in soil, leaves and trees, so look for a gentle rise in the ground rather than a white pile of shell.

Nobody knows for certain why they were built. They may have been round villages, with the scraps of everyday meals thrown to the edge, or gathering places where people came together for large shared feasts.

Two Rings in a Figure Eight

Ford’s is the first site found where two shell rings join. The smaller ring is the older one, by about 300 years; the larger ring was built later and overlaps it, so from above the pair makes a figure eight. The site is on the National Register of Historic Places, and Town law protects it: digging, collecting shells or disturbing the rings in any way is against the law.

Visiting the Park

This is a passive park, made for walking and looking. Earthen trails lead through the trees to the rings, split-rail fencing keeps feet off them, and signs explain what you are seeing. There is a small parking area at the entrance on Squire Pope Road, with accessible spaces. Stay on the trails and leave every shell where it lies.

Visit in daylight, and call Beaufort County Land Preservation at (843) 255-2150 to check hours or ask about a group visit. The park is shady woods at the edge of the marsh, so bring bug spray from spring through fall.

Hilton Head’s Other Shell Rings

The island has three shell ring sites. Green’s Shell Enclosure is a few minutes away, by Green Shell Park at 99 Squire Pope Road, and is protected by the Town and the state. The Sea Pines Shell Ring, about 150 feet across, sits on the nature trails of the Sea Pines Forest Preserve, inside the Sea Pines gates at the south end. For more of the island’s past, see history on Hilton Head Island and Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park.

Getting There

The park is at 273 Squire Pope Road, which runs along Skull Creek on the north end of the island, off William Hilton Parkway. It is a short drive from the pier and kayak launch at Squire Pope Community Park, and from lunch on the water at Skull Creek Boathouse, so the three make an easy north-end morning.