Project Gurnet & Bug Lights

The purpose of Project Gurnet & Bug Lights, Inc. shall be to operate a non-profit organization which shall be actively engaged in the restoration, preservation, and maintenance of Duxbury Pier Light (Bug Light) and The Plymouth Light Station (Gurnet Light, Fort Andrew, and the Keeper’s Cottage), and to encourage public awareness and support of these unique historic monuments to our nautical past.
Committee members have volunteered thousands of hours maintaining the lighthouses. We are responsible for the upkeep of the structures themselves and the surrounding property while the Coast Guard continues to maintain the actual aids to navigation (the lanterns, foghorns, and solar panels).

The Gurnet lighthouse is not open to the public. It is accessible by four-wheel-drive vehicle from Duxbury Beach, but the road to the lighthouse is not open to the general public. There may be occasional open houses, including during Duxbury’s Opening of the Bay festival in May. Check Here for more information.

Project Bug Light was formed in response to the Coast Guard’s plan to replace Bug Light with a light atop a fiberglass pole in 1983. For over 30 years a salty band of volunteers has preserved first Bug Light, and later Gurnet Light, Fort Andrew and the Keeper’s Cottage, under licenses from the U.S. Coast Guard. Now known as Project Gurnet and Bug Lights, Inc. (PG&BL), our group has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to preserve these landmarks.

Bug Light, first lit on September 15 1871, was the first cast iron caisson-style lighthouse in the United States. Located on the northerly side of the channel which leads to Plymouth, Kingston, and Duxbury harbors, it was installed to protect mariners from the dangerous shoal off Saquish Head. The light originally housed a 5th order Fresnel lens with a fixed white light 35 feet above high tide. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.