Newport Life — Rights-of-way offer easy coastline access

Common Fence Point, Portsmouth RI Sea Grant

By Bob Curley — Often overlooked, rights-of-way offer easy access to Aquidneck’s captivating coastline.

On a chilly winter evening at Mount Hope Park in Portsmouth, the deep orange glow of sunset offered false warmth behind the elegant silhouette of the Mount Hope Bridge. A necklace of street lamps on the vaulted span wink on at dusk, competing for attention with the occasional beacon flash from the Hog Island and Bristol Ferry lighthouses.  

It’s a million-dollar view that doesn’t cost Rhode Islanders a penny, thanks to their Constitutionally guaranteed right to access the shoreline — a privilege that dates back to the Royal Charter granted to the colony of Rhode Island by King Charles II in 1663. And Mount Hope Park is just one of the state’s more than 220 designated coastal rights-of-way, including more than 65 on Aquidneck Island.  

Some of the access points in Newport, Middletown and Portsmouth are well-known: Easton’s Beach is on the list, for example, as are the state parks at Fort Adams and Brenton Point. Others, however, beckon explorers to strangely vacant lots on residential streets (often “between two houses I can’t afford,” jokes Dave Lombardi, a North Providence resident who has visited nearly all of the state’s designated shoreline access points) and quiet wooded paths that have been used by local fishermen for centuries to launch their boats or surf cast. 

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