Scargo Tower, Dennis

it is not the highest point on Cape Cod! Beautiful views of Sandy Neck and Barnstable harbor to the left (looking out), the end of the canal, the White Cliffs of Plymouth/Cedarville/Ellisville, and to the right you can see the Wellfleet area. If you have binoculars you can see Provincetown. Beautiful place to watch the sunset.....and probably sunrise too, though I have yet to try that!

The tower itself was alright... seeing all the graffiti all over it made me quite sad since this was some what an historic site and the tower was much smaller than we had thought including the limited area around it . but the view made everything worth it.i would definitely go back once the leaves change.

I liked this place so much I chose it as the place to propose to my girlfriend. As the sun set I popped the question. She of course said "yes" and we'll be married next year. I grew up visiting Scargo Tower and I made my girlfriend part of my memories of it.

It has a beautiful view--you can see all the way to Providence on a clear day. It is one of the first things we do when we return to the Cape after unpacking at the cottage we rent in Dennis. It is just a nice tradition.

i think that they need to fix up the place. it was abuslutly awful i you go back there youwill hate it

Every year I bring my children and my neighbors daughter to visit Scargo Tower for a picnic. All summer they ask when we are going. There isn't much else to do there besides take in the view so I figured it would be a good place to have lunch. It's a small tower located in a parking lot.The view is amazing. Sometimes we have eaten in our car due to glass broken throughout the parking lot. Toddlers have to be watched carefully. There isn't anywhere for them to run around and the platform at the top is small with steep stairs. When my kids were toddlers I just popped in for a quick look through our binoculars and they were amazed. If your in the area take five or ten minutes to look at this spot. It's worth it to see the view. I gave the atmosphere a low rating because the tower is located in a parking lot which is sometimes littered with glass.

It is "not" brick, the photo obviously shows "stone" Live about a mile from it, many years.Best view from there is when fall colors are showing.

Built in the early 1900's by members of the Tobey family on land they later donated to the town of Dennis; the original tower stairs were made of wood and were inset to the tower walls - the locations of each step can still be seen today. The wooden steps have long since been replaced by a spiral central stair made of steel. There is room on the top platform for a max of 6 adults; small children should be watched carefully or risk a tumble down the stair. Views on clear days are unparalleled on the Cape. There are few better places to watch a sunset. Only con: visitors leave a LOT of broken glass in the small parking area!

I absolutely love visiting Scargo Tower, specially at night because you can see the lights in P-Town. It's a great place to go and relax and just hang out, lay down, and look up at the sky. It's a great escape when you're looking for peace and solitude.

We actually "stumbled" onto Scargo tower last summer vacationing on the cape the last week of June, 2005. We rented a house right on 6A, literally ON the border of Yarmouthport and Barnstable (the town sign was in our front yard!). We ended up at Scargo pond after a lunch at Sesuit Harbor Cafe (also highly recommended) because the water in the ocean was still pretty cold as it was early in our trip (it warmed up later in the week). While the kids were spashing in the warmer water of the pond, I walked around the pond a bit, and came across a couple walking by that were looking for Scargo tower. I obviously couldn't help them, but my curiosity was also piqued. After we were finished up at the pond, we went up to Scargo Pottery (see reviews) after their signs caught our eye. We were very pleased by "finding" the Scargo Pottery campus, and after looking around and buying a few things, asked them about Scargo Tower. They gave us some brief history and directions to get there, and we were off to the tower. It doesn't seem very impressive on approach. Some small signs direct you up a driveway, and, at only 30 feet or so tall, you can't even see it until you are right up on it. However, it sits on a bluff above Scargo pond, and offers an amazing view. There are very few high spots on the cape, so the ones that do exist (Scargo tower, lighthouses, Pilgrim Monument) provide exceptional views. Scargo tower apparently was originally made of wood back in the 1870's, but was destoyed in a storm shortly after construction. They rebuilt it out of wood, and it burned down. So in 1901 they built it out of cobblestones (most likely ship ballast, as cobblestones in that era were abundant as ship ballast, and Cape Cod has a RICH shipping history). On a clear day, you can see most of the lower cape all the way out to Provincetown. Bring a good set of binoculars. I could make out the Pilgrim monument the first day we were there with the naked eye, which is probably 20 miles away as a crow flies. They say you can see all the way to Plymouth, though I couldn't make out anything on the mainland enough to really know what or where I was looking at on the mainland. From Scargo tower, you can really see how close Scargo pond is to the ocean. They say that Scargo pond is the closest freshwater to the ocean (Actually Cape Cod bay, but it's basically the ocean, and certainly ocean water). From the tower, it looks like the pond is separated by just a small strip of land. In reality, it is several hundred feet, but still impressive. The climb up the steps is easy and quick. We're in our 30s, with a 4 and 11 year old, but there were folks of all ages easily making the climb up both times we visited. From memory it's probably only 20 steps or so, and it is a pretty wide, easy staircase to navigate. There is room at the top for 8 to 10 people, and a great photo opportunity. The tower is surrounded by private property and housing developments, so this is a quick, viewshed only stop, but well worth the effort combined with a trip to the pond, scargo pottery, Sesuit Harbor, Hallets store, museum and millpond area, or other close by itinerary. We will be on the river in Falmouth this year, but if we find ourselves up this way, which we may, if not this year, next year when we plan to stay in P-town, we will certainly visit Scargo pottery and the tower again. Enjoy!