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State Awards $1.25 Million to Begin Restoring Shutes Folly Island to Protect Charleston’s Waterfront
Sept. 1, 2026
CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Castle Pinckney Historical Preservation Society (CPHPS) announces that $1.25 million in state funding has been approved through the South Carolina Office of Resilience to begin restoring Shutes Folly Island as a natural buffer protecting Charleston’s waterfront.
“This is an opportunity to combine coastal resilience, natural resource restoration, and historic preservation in one project,” said Richard Moore, President of the CPHPS. “The ultimate goal is to stabilize Shutes Folly so it can continue protecting Charleston’s waterfront and Castle Pinckney for generations to come.”
Shutes Folly, located directly off Charleston’s peninsula, has historically helped absorb wave energy from storms and vessel traffic before it reaches Charleston’s Waterfront Park and the southeast side of the peninsula. Once covering more than 100 acres, however, the island has been reduced to fewer than 15 acres due to decades of erosion.
This funding will support the first phase of a living shoreline and habitat restoration project that is designed to stabilize the remaining island, retain sediment, reduce erosion, restore marine habitat, and strengthen the island’s ability to serve as a natural protective barrier in Charleston Harbor. The project will also help protect Castle Pinckney, one of South Carolina’s oldest surviving military fortifications, which has stood on Shutes Folly since the early 1800s.
The Castle Pinckney Historical Preservation Society, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, is the steward and owner of Castle Pinckney. Now that the CPHPS has completed the construction of its private access dock at Castle Pinckney, the Society is focusing on its mission: to preserve the fort, restore the structure’s lost features and explain its rich history.
For more information about the CPHPS, visit Castle-Pinckney.org
For more information about the contents of this latest announcement, please contact:
Richard P. Moore, President
Castle Pinckney Historical Preservation Society
r.moore@castle-pinckney.org
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