Tours inside Cape Lookout Lighthouse suspended

Walking tours inside the Cape Lookout Lighthouse have been suspended after an inspection found deterioration of the stairway, according to a press release.

The National Park Service said an engineering inspection of the tower’s circular stairway earlier this month detected “significant deterioration to the integrity” of the stairs, according to a release Friday from Cape Lookout National Seashore.

The lighthouse is not regularly open for climbing. However, four times a year the National Park Service took reservations to allow a limited number of visitors to climb to the top of the 163-foot tall structure. Reservations were often booked in a matter of hours.

“We had hoped to be able to conduct a limited schedule of tours while we worked to get the lighthouse tower open to the public on a regular basis,” Russel J. Wilson, superintendent of Cape Lookout National Seashore, said in a statement. “It is clear from the engineer’s report though, that to ensure public safety, we need to suspend tours until necessary structural upgrades to the lighthouse are completed.”

According to the press release, an engineering evaluation and design work to make modifications to allow visitors to climb the lighthouse are to take place this summer. However, Wilson offered no date on when the lighthouse would be opened again for tours.

Though the lighthouse won’t be open, the keeper’s quarters and visitor center on the Carteret County barrier island will be open to the public this summer as usual.

Construction on the lighthouse was completed in 1859. Its light still operates and can be seen from 19 miles away, according to the park.

For more information, contact the Cape Lookout National Seashore office at 728-2250 or go

online to www.nps.gov/calo.