
So I would go around that time to insure parking space. We arrived at 9:45-10:00am and were about the 3 row in. Lots of employees directing you, was nice. But with the size of the beach, it can’t get crowded.

There’s a large unpaved parking lot that fits around 1400 cars. Parking: $22 per car on the weekends but well worth it.
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The beach scenes of 2019 version of the movie Little Women also were filmed on the property.WOW! That was the first word I said when we came over the high dunes and saw the beach. The 1968 movie The Thomas Crown Affair starring Steve McQueen features a scene where McQueen’s character drives a dune buggy across this beach. The Cape Ann Transportation Authority (CATA) provides summer weekend bus service between the Ipswich MBTA train station and Crane Beach. The Greenhead fly is active in this area for a few weeks in July and early August. According to the same 2006 census, Crane Beach was home to 19 breeding pairs and 40 total adults. The 2006 International Piping Plover Breeding Census estimated that only 3,884 plovers remained. Ĭrane Beach is an important nesting site for the threatened piping plover. In addition, every student received a celebratory t-shirt to wear to the beach, featuring a picture of Cornelius on his 6th birthday. There were people hired to impersonate the Crane family and greet people as they got to the beach, a replica of the old Ipswich Lighthouse, and even a special ice cream flavor dedicated to Cornelius (called “Cornelius Crunch”). Several students, with birthdays closest to the day of the event, arrived at the beach by boat like they would when the tradition was started. In 2011, the schools celebrated the 100th anniversary of the event. Ever since, the tradition of Crane Beach Day has been repeated.

(previous owners of the Crane Estate) began a tradition of inviting all the Ipswich school children to the beach for a day in 1911 to celebrate their son, Cornelius’, 6th birthday. The middle school students have the option to take part in a run that goes from the Ipswich Town Hall, to the beach. On this day, students from the Doyon and Winthrop Elementary Schools, as well as the Ipswich Middle School students, gather at the beach during the school day.

There is an annual celebration that takes place at the beach on June 16 (if the weather is sufficient) called Crane Beach Day. Along with Castle Hill and the Crane Wildlife Refuge, it is owned and maintained by The Trustees of Reservations. Across the water, Plum Island and its sandy beaches are visible.Ĭrane Beach was established in 1945 as a gift from Richard T. In the summer months there is a refreshment bar, and the restrooms, showers and changing facilities are open year-round.ĭuring low tide, it is often possible to wade out to sand bars, and during the warm months small boats often dock on these sand bars. Non-residents must pay a fee to enter ($40 on weekends during peak season for a car, as of August 2021).
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Five and a half miles of hiking trails through the dunes and forest are accessible from the beachfront.Ĭrane Beach is open year-round, and is free to Ipswich residents with the purchase of a yearly beach parking sticker.

It consists of a four-mile-long (6 km) sandy beachfront, dunes, and a maritime pitch pine forest. Panorama of Crane Beach in September 2007Ĭrane Beach is a 1,234-acre (4.99 km 2) conservation and recreation property located in Ipswich, Massachusetts, immediately north of Cape Ann. Not to be confused with Crane Beach, Barbados.
