Fort Dorchester

Local residents know that the South Carolina State Historic Site at Fort Dorchester offers pleasant walking trails, features the ruins of a colonial town, cemetery, and church tower, and showcases one of the best-preserved oyster-shell, or “tabby,” fortifications in the nation. Visitors from farther afield, however, may be surprised to find the remnants of a flourishing eighteenth-century trading post and Revolutionary War stronghold only 25 miles from the City of Charleston. Although the town of Dorchester disappeared after American independence was won, it had a prominent role in the early history of South Carolina and the struggle for liberty.