Stoney-Baynard Ruins

Great place to bike to in Sea Pines. Multiple entrances in and out of the ruins. Areas are clearly labeled. You can feel the history here. Parking Spaces and Bike Racks. Nice to find out some HHI History.

Since you do have to pay $ 5 per car to enter Sea Pines, it’s worth it to check out all the sites in this area… this being one of them. Even with a map, we drove right by this place. It’s not clearly marked, so you have to pay attention when you are on the street looking for it. It only took us not even 10 minutes to stop and look. It was interesting to see the ruins, and each little area had a small narrative describing what it was. I’d say if you are into seeing new things when you go to new places, then it’s worth it to check it out!

Very cool… anything that deals with history is a 5 star. Did a little geocaching on the island.

Tucked in a back corner of Sea Pines resort, the Stoney-​Baynard Ruins are easy to miss. From the road all you see is a small gravel lot and an inconspicuous road sign.
Note. There are no services whatsoever hear. No tour guides. No maps. No gift shop. No bathroom. Just some walking trails with the occasional plaques along the way. I say this not to complain. The place is just not big enough to need all that kind of stuff. I say it just to provide a little bit of forewarning.
There is a very short walking path up to the ruins of of an old stone house. the only thing that’s left standing is one corner or the house and a partial wall around the foundation. But it’s very interesting. The posted plaques do a great job detailing how they constructed the house with «tabby,» which is a mortar like substance made with local materials instead of bricks.
In total there are three or four sites where large tabby blocks are laid out to outline what were once outbuildings from the main house.
You can see everything there is to see of the ruins in about 20 minutes. But there’s actually a lot more to see. There are several informal walking trails around the site. You’ll be amazed at how you can walk just 10 or 20 yards down these paths and feel like you are in the middle of a jungle. All the plants are completely wild, competing with each other for sunlight. And I had a blast taking pictures of the palms and the pines and the magnolias and the moss and the lichen and the ferns. Those walking trails truly give you a sense of how brave the people were who tried to settle that place.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent there and it was well worth the price of admission (free).

Not the most amazing place, but definitely worth a quick visit.
Stoney-​Baynard Ruins have the remnants of a plantation house and slave quarters. Remnants is the key word: don’t expect to see a big ol’ plantation house here. Rather, you’ll see the «tabby» footings of old buildings made out of bits and pieces of shells.
The surrounding area in Sea Pines alone is beautiful and worth the visit, so if you’re paying the $ 5 (see my review of Sea Pines for how aggravated I was that you can’t bike in) to get into the area, stop here.
Oh yeah — don’t touch the tabby. There’s a little confusing display saying it’s okay to touch the tabby, but not okay, too. What they mean is that it’s okay to touch the little broken samples, which appear to be new-​ish, but not the actual pieces of the historic site.