Dungeness Audio Tour Stop 4

The Carnegie Dungeness ruins dominate the landscape today, but the same area spans multiple eras.

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

You are standing in front of the ruins of Dungeness, a mansion built in the mid-1880s by Thomas and Lucy Carnegie. These ruins are but one of numerous visual reminders of the Carnegie era here on Cumberland Island, but the Carnegie Dungeness represents only one layer of this area’s rich history. In 1783 Revolutionary War Hero Nathanael Greene obtained half of Cumberland Island and began cutting and selling live oaks. Although he died in 1786, his widow Catherine Littlefield Greene and her second husband Phineas Miller moved to Cumberland around 1800 and built a four story, 68-foot-tall tabby mansion that they called Dungeness and which stood in the same location as this Dungeness. The Greene-Miller Dungeness burned in 1866 and stood in ruins for fifteen years, acting as a tourist attraction and inspiring tentative plans for a hotel.

In 1881, however, Thomas Carnegie purchased the property, tore down the Greene-Miller Dungeness ruins and built his own house in its place. The Carnegie Dungeness had 37,000 square feet and is estimated to have cost $200,000 to build. Abandoned in 1924, it burned in 1959, rumored to have been set on fire by poachers. 

The War of 1812 at Dungeness

The war of 1812 officially ended in December of 1814 with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, but it took a few months for word to make it across the Atlantic. As a result, the war continued to be fought in North America. This had particular significance on Cumberland Island, which was occupied in January of 1815 by British Rear Admiral George Cockburn and his troops. Cockburn offered freedom and passage to the British Caribbean to any enslaved persons in the area who made it to Cumberland Island. In this way, around 1500 slaves gained their freedom in the opening months of 1815. By March, Cockburn had received word that the war was over and departed the island. During his stay on the island, Cockburn occupied the first two floors of Dungeness Mansion, forcing the Greene-Millers upstairs.