Dennis MA

As you enter the center of Dennis along MA 6A heading east, look for an cemetery and a white church. Just past them turn right onto Old Bass River Road and follow signs for eight-tenths of a mile to the Scargo Hill Tower.

Park at the base of this stone structure surrounded by oak and pine, and climb the 36-step steel staircase inside to the top for a view that will tell you what the Cape is all about.

On a clear day you may see Provincetown, at the tip of the Cape, the white blade of the Cape beaches cutting the deep blue of Cape Cod Bay.

The Cape itself appears as a huge green scimitar, a sea of green trees with little white or silver-gray shingled houses (not to mention cylindrical water towers) poking through here and there.

At the foot of the hill that holds the tower is Scargo Lake, and west is the outline of Barnstable Harbor.

The tower was given to the town of Dennis in 1929 by the Tobey family, who had had ancestors living in Dennis since 1678.

As you descend the steel stairs, they chime in bad imitation of a church carillon.

More pretty scenes, including those cranberry bogs and salt marshes, await you in Dennis. If you get off MA 6A to wander and explore, expect to get lost.

This is a confusing, if beautiful, place. For instance, though the village of East Dennis is actually east of Dennis, the village of South Dennis is due north of West Dennis, and these two are due south of East Dennis . . . got it?

In the evening, attend a performance at the Cape Playhouse, or a movie at the Cape Cinema.

---

Cape Cod Tourist Information

Cape Cod Homepage