Local News
Neighbors who live near the Sconset Bluff Walk say summer months bring an influx of tourists who snap photos on private property and peer into homes along the trail.
The Sconset Bluff Walk in Siasconset, Nantucket, meanders between private homes and private beach access up toward the Sankaty Head Light. Carlin Stiehl for The Boston Globe, File
March 10, 2026 | 9:13 AM
4 minutes to read
Nantucket has agreed to cut back on the recommended hours for a popular tourist destination, the Sconset Bluff Walk, after neighbors voiced complaints about visitors snapping photos on private property, peering into homes, and even getting caught in flagrante off-trail.
The island’s Select Board voted unanimously last week to pilot more limited hours of use for the bluff walk, suggesting visitors limit themselves to 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Previously, the recommended hours ran from 7:30 a.m. to sunset. The change was first reported by Nantucket Current.
The trial run also authorizes the Siasconset Civic Association to hire a “bluff docent” to educate and interact with visitors in July and August, subject to community feedback.
Generations of Nantucket residents have used some version of the footpath in picturesque Siasconset, a village along the island’s easternmost coast. Today, the public trail runs behind private homes along the bluff.
But while the footpath has been a popular site for decades, neighbors say an influx of social media influencers and tour groups have driven foot traffic exponentially.
“What happens is that people now with social media are hearing about the bluff walk as a destination place on Nantucket, and the Town of Nantucket’s information office and everybody else who is involved with selling Nantucket as a destination is partly responsible for the invasion that happens,” said actor John Shea, a year-round Nantucket resident who serves on the board of the Siasconset Civic Association.
Appearing before the Select Board last week, Shea said some of his friends on Front Street — a neighborhood just off the bluff walk — have had tourists peer inside their bedroom windows early in the morning.
“And I have to say, I have neighbors on the bluff walk who told me that they woke up one morning and a couple were making love on their front porch,” Shea said, adding, “It is a problem; we do feel like we’re being invaded, particularly in the summer.”
Another neighbor, Robert Burke, offered similar observations.
“We get people who lay on our lawn sometimes,” and others who linger for impromptu photoshoots, Burke said.
“98% or 99% of the people are a joy, and I enjoy interacting with them,” he continued. “I am by no means somebody who advocates big restrictions — just control, or some sort of a filter.”
Siasconset Civic Association President Karel Greenberg laid out a slate of proposed restrictions she described as “thoughtful, measured steps to slow the erosion of the path and better educate visitors about its fragility.”
Existing signs along the footpath say the Sconset Bluff Walk is open from 7:30 a.m. to sunset, though Greenberg noted those hours are only advisory, with no enforcement. She suggested updating the cutoff from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. to help reduce foot traffic and ease wear on the path, which is prone to coastal erosion.
“It would also give homeowners an extra hour of morning privacy to enjoy their backyards without intrusion and some peace in the evening from the hundreds of visitors walking the bluff all day long,” Greenberg said.
Two people walk the Sconset Bluff Walk on Nantucket in 2010. – Rob Benchley, File
She pitched the Select Board on wooden gates or narrowed entryways to serve as a reminder that the footpath is not for bicycles or strollers, as well as a docent to encourage respectful use. The docent would be an educator, not an enforcement authority, and their salary would be funded by the civic association, ’Sconset Trust, and homeowners along the bluff, Greenberg clarified.
With summer’s busy season on the horizon, she also called for public messaging that emphasizes respectful use over tourism.
“With up to 1,000 visitors per day during peak season, the bluff walk is already beyond sustainable capacity,” Greenberg said. “While we cannot control influencers, Instagrammers, or filmmakers, we can shape how the path is presented through social media, print, and digital messaging.”
Still, some community members who spoke at the Select Board meeting suggested the proposed 5:30 p.m. cutoff would be too early for the summer months, when the sun typically sets hours later. Others suggested local homeowners may use the new restrictions as justification to harass or confront bluff walk visitors.
“Which is something that, as Nantucketers, we know is highly probable, that people will get a little enabled and feel like it is their right to just accost [visitors],” said resident Rain Harbison.
Harbison also raised concerns about allowing private citizens to set limitations for a public way, adding, “It’s a precedent that I really don’t want to have to fight in the future.”
Select Board Vice Chair Matt Fee said he found some valid points in the Siasconset Civic Association’s proposal, though he wasn’t sure all of the suggestions were feasible.
“There has to be a balance here of public and private rights that I think … was easy to strike when there were only 10,000 of us, peak summer,” Fee said. “It’s hard to strike when there are 60 or 80 [thousand people], and there’s an internet, and they’re talking about the ‘great walk,’ and ‘everyone needs to go do it this weekend.’”
Town Manager Libby Gibson said Nantucket has tried to meet some of the Siasconset neighbors’ requests, to the extent possible.
“We obviously have zero control over Tripadvisor telling people to go to the bluff walk, things like that,” she said. “Nantucket is a very popular place.”
Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.
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