Burnt Island Light stands on a small island at the mouth of Boothbay Harbor, built in 1821 and one of the oldest surviving lighthouses in Maine. The Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands runs guided tours to the island by boat each summer, where living history interpreters portray the lighthouse keeper's family in the 1950s — an unusually theatrical format for a historic site.
The tour covers the lighthouse keeper's house, the engine room, and the light tower itself, with its view back across the harbor and out to sea. The island is uninhabited and small enough that visitors get a genuine sense of what isolation meant for the families who staffed these lights year-round. Check tour schedules with the local information office — departures are limited and weather-dependent.