Cumberland Island is one of the most pristine and wild places left in the states. You can only go by ferry (though I read you can kayak there). No motorized vehicles are allowed on the island. You can rent a bike. There is VERY primitive camping allowed also. It is pack it in pack it out, no amenities and the waiting list to get a pass to the ferry can be upwards of six months long.

The most famous inhabitants are the wild horses that roam free all over the island.

The moment our ferry docked we spotted one.

It was magical!

As if wild horses weren't enough...there were ruins!

Dungeness is the ruins of the Carnegie family Mansion.

Built as a winter getaway, construction began on the Carnegie’s mansion in 1884 under the direction of Andrew’s brother, Thomas Carnegie and his wife Lucy. Sadly, Thomas passed away before the estate was finished. When it was finally finished a few years later, Lucy and her children moved into the mansion that was accompanied by a pool, golf course and other residences for the family’s 200 servants.

The estate flourished until the 1920s, but was left abandoned during the Great Depression. It sat decaying until 1959, when a fire gutted the mansion, leaving only a skeletal and crumbling group of ruins. Today, many of those ruins still stand as a ghostly reminder of the wealth the island once contained including the main mansion, the pool house, the gardens, and various other buildings.

Although most of the island is now preserved under wildlife conservation efforts, the ruins can still be seen, and visitors can get a fairly accurate picture of what the Dungeness mansion once looked like ~ Atlas Obscura

Horses were not the only thing we crossed paths with.

We stumbled upon rusted remains of old cars and even a cemetery!

We witnessed all this amazingness and had not even got to the beach yet. Let me just say...The beach warrants it's own post.

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