Epic Travel → North America → The Northeast → Massachusetts → Gibbet Hill

Location: Groton, Massachusetts

Time Required: half a day

Red Tape/Notes: None

What’s Nearby?: Boston is an hour away

Otherwise just a very pretty, rather upscale New England town, Groton has one thing that we really liked: Gibbet Hill. It’s easily visible as the tallest hill in the area, and there’s a trail next to the remnants of a stone gateway at the base of the hill that leads to the top. From the top, you get excellent views of Groton, but more importantly, you can poke around the ruins of Bancroft’s Castle. It was built in 1906 as a gift for his wife (maybe someday Tom will build a small castle for me!) and burned during a fireworks celebration in 1932, leaving the picturesque ruins you can now visit. We liked this place so much that we had our “third wedding” here (long story, but we eloped first, then had a typical wedding in North Carolina, then did another reception here). Hiking to the top of the hill in my wedding dress was an adventure in itself, and that’s before we started climbing over gates and wandering through cow pastures, but it was a great opportunity to take some out of the ordinary wedding pictures. At the base of Gibbet Hill, The Gibbet Hill Grill serves amazing food and the Barn is a lovely venue for a wedding (if I do say so myself).

Epic Travel → North America → The Northeast → Massachusetts → Gibbet Hill