Thimble Islands
An Archipelago Of Several Hundred Small Pink Granite Islands Off Stony Creek In Branford, About Two Dozen Of Them Inhabited; Seen By Seasonal Boat Tour From The Dock, With No Public Landing Anywhere In The Group · Branford, Connecticut
Off Stony Creek in Branford the Connecticut shoreline breaks up into several hundred small islands of pink Stony Creek granite - the same stone that went into the base of the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge - scattered across a few square miles of Long Island Sound. Around two dozen carry houses, some of them a single building sitting on a rock barely larger than itself, reached only by boat and supplied the same way. There is no public landing anywhere in the group; the islands are privately owned and have been for a century and a half, so the visit is a boat tour from the dock at Stony Creek, running roughly May to October with independent operators. The village itself is a small granite-quarrying settlement that became a summer colony, and it is worth an hour before or after the boat. Tours are weather-dependent and cancel at short notice, so build a spare afternoon in, and book ahead in July and August when the sunset sailings go first. Kayaking among the islands is the other way in, and the tide runs hard through the gaps.
Stony Creek Dock, Thimble Islands Road, Branford, Branford, Connecticut, 06405, United States
SEASONAL AND BY BOAT. Tours run roughly from May to October from the Stony Creek dock in Branford, operated by independent companies with their own schedules, and they are weather-dependent and cancel at short notice. There is NO PUBLIC LANDING on any island - the tours circulate and return. Stony Creek village and the dock area are open all year; the islands themselves are private property and are not accessible on foot at any time.