Trails & Grounds

The public trails are currently closed due to hunting in partnership with the Town of Shelter Island’s Hunting Program to control the deer population. Please adhere to the posted TRAILS CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC signs at all times.

Trails and Grounds at Sylvester Manor

Sylvester Manor’s extraordinarily varied landscape has been said to comprise an index of the human relationship with this continent. Across the 236 acres are cultural resources that contribute to the site’s listing on the State and National Register of Historic Places as a Historic District of national significance. Nearly 5 miles of roadways, groomed trails and footpaths take visitors from Old Growth Forest to field to shorefront, offering dramatic farmland vistas and serene woodland walks.

Trails and Grounds at Sylvester Manor

The historic core holds the Manor House, Barns, formal garden, specimen trees and sweeping lawns alongside Gardiners Creek. The north peninsula echoes with the millennia of stewardship by the ancestral Manhansett inhabitants. Dering Harbor beachfront evokes the maritime connection that brought the Sylvesters to Shelter Island’s shores. Wildlife abounds, and the trails must be closed to the public for annual hunting to manage the overabundant deer population. Trails are open to the public and leashed dogs are welcome from dawn to dusk, March through October.

Clean Water Project

Sylvester Manor worked with Suffolk County from 2014-2017 to develop the first Vegetated Recirculating Gravel Filter Constructed Wetland experimental wastewater treatment system installed in the County. Natural processes in gravel beds beneath the native plants garden break down nutrients harmful to ground and surface waters, which are then absorbed by the roots or released into the air. The system processes waste from the public restrooms that are open May through October.