South Beach, Bald Head Island
A rooftop live webcam over South Beach on Bald Head Island, North Carolina, dunes and Atlantic surf.
About this view
This live cam looks south-west over the Atlantic from a rooftop at South Beach on Bald Head Island, the village at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in Brunswick County, North Carolina. The camera stands above Beach Access 15, one of the numbered paths that cross the dunes.
There are no cars on the island: residents and visitors move by golf cart, and the beach stays wide and empty for long stretches, with pelicans working the surf line and shrimp boats passing offshore. Behind the dunes stands Old Baldy, the oldest lighthouse in North Carolina, lit in 1817 to guide ships past the Frying Pan Shoals, the sandbanks that run out to sea from the cape and gave it its name and its reputation.
The island keeps Eastern Time, UTC−5, UTC−4 in summer, so sunrise here comes during a European lunchtime. Loggerhead turtles come ashore to lay from May to August, some 275 people live here year round, and everyone arrives on the passenger ferry from Southport, since there is no bridge.
