Nags Head is the heart of vacationing on the Outer Banks and has been for more than a century. ( Nags Head Vacation Rental )Drawn by ocean breezes, our sunny shores, and the curious nature of the Outer Banks, generations of visitors have fallen in love with this place and come back time and time again, often with friends and family in tow, folks they know will see the Outer Banks the way they (and we) do: the closest thing to paradise this side of heaven.
Among the most recognizable of the Northern Outer Banks beach towns – thanks in part to the colossal sand dunes in Jockey’s Ridge State Park – Nags Head also happens to be filled with all the things a vacationer needs. This town is packed with beach houses, seaside motels, and hotels with a view; there are boutiques, surf shops, an outlet mall, and grocery stores; restaurants serving everything from fine dining feasts to barbecue to casual bites, but always exceptional seafood; and there are fishing piers, parks, and a surprising array of things to do.
Bordered to the south by Oregon Inlet and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, to the west by Roanoke Sound, and to the north by the town of Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head sits at a wide point on the Outer Banks, so there’s plenty of room for all this getaway goodness.
But that name, Nags Head, it’s an odd one; where did it come from? Local legend says it came about in the early 1800s when this stretch of coast was earning the nickname The Graveyard of the Atlantic (there are more than a thousand shipwrecks off our shores, so it’s a well-deserved title) thanks to the hidden shoals and sandbars offshore. Some nefarious characters are said to have tied lanterns around the necks of their old farm horses and led these nags along the dune ridges in what is now Jockey’s Ridge State Park. The swaying and rocking lights looked like lanterns hung from the topmasts of ships safely in port, and seeing these lights, ships at sea would head closer to safe waters. That’s when they’d be shipwrecked by bottoming out in the shallows during the dark hours of the night, erroneously straying too close to the beach and these land-based pirates were able to salvage wood and cargo from the wrecks. And Nags Head was born.
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