Chilmark

A boardwalk · out to the water

A boardwalk bending through wind-killed trees, with the water flat and gray at the end of it.

Chilmark is a rural, up-Island town on the western side of Martha's Vineyard. The English-speaking community here dates to the 1600s, though the land has been home to the Wampanoag people for thousands of years. Chilmark today is preserved farmland, rolling hills and secluded beaches, with a tight-knit population of roughly 1,200 residents.

MV Vacation wrote and photographed this guide on the island.

We respectfully acknowledge the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) as the original stewards of this land.

Chilmark sits between West Tisbury and Aquinnah, the quiet, rural middle of up-Island. It makes a good base for the western end of the island.

Finding Chilmark

Beetlebung Corner

The center of Chilmark life sits at Beetlebung Corner, where South Road, Middle Road, and Menemsha Crossroad intersect. A handful of places do all the work here:

For more up-Island food, nearby West Tisbury has more farm stands and markets, and conservation land to walk.

The farms

Chilmark is one of the Vineyard's most agricultural communities, with active farms supplying produce, dairy, breads, and meats across the island.

A

B

C

Beetlebung Corner and the farms · three studies

A: the General Store porch, the town’s summer hub; B: the handwritten price board at the Mermaid Farm dairy shed; C: goats in a pen at a Chilmark farm.

Trails and ponds

Chilmark touches both Vineyard Sound and the Atlantic, and some of the island's best walking runs between the two.

Chilmark's two ocean beaches are beautiful, and in summer they are restricted:

Chilmark's land, season by season

Chilmark has been a fishing and farming town for more than three centuries, and the land still reads that way: rolling hills, gray stone walls running down to the water, and trees pruned low and leaning by the southwest wind that blows most summer afternoons. Drive down toward Menemsha and you will see whole hillsides of oak and cedar bent the same direction. The fields at Keith Farm on Middle Road, with the barn, the stone wall and the split-rail fence, are one of the best-loved views from a public road on the island. It is a view to take in slowly, since the lane has no room to stop.

The color changes month by month. Yellow Scotch broom opens along the roadsides in June, followed by daisies, rugosa rose, beach pea and black-eyed Susans, then Queen Anne's lace, chicory and orange butterfly weed in high summer, and asters and goldenrod, in more kinds than most people can tell apart, from late August into October. That is also when the wild fruit ripens: beach plums in the dunes, blackberries and grapes along the walls, and the beach plum jelly you see at the farm stands comes from exactly these hedgerows.

The south shore is the part of Chilmark that will not sit still. Wind and surf take ground from the clay cliffs every year, and the black, white and red clay that slumps onto the sand at Lucy Vincent and along the Wequobsket Cliffs is resculpted by every winter's storms. The cliffs at Windy Gates, the private estate on those bluffs, were for decades the summer home of Roger Baldwin, the founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, who died in 1981 at 97. At Squibnocket the retreat was serious enough that in 2017 and 2018 the town removed the old stone revetment and rebuilt the beach parking lot about 100 feet farther back toward the pond. The cliffs are protected, so climbing and digging for clay are off limits, and so are the dunes.

For the sunset, head down to Menemsha and the public Menemsha Beach, a few minutes away by car.

Menemsha

On Chilmark's north shore, Menemsha is one of the island's last working fishing villages. It has:

• Two family-run fish markets
• A public beach that faces the sunset
• Docks, lobster boats, and working waterfront
• Boutiques and small seasonal shops

Menemsha Town Beach is open to the public and is many people's favorite place on the island to watch the sunset.

For real-time harbor conditions and coastal scenery, visit our Island Live Webcams.

Up-Island waters · Chilmark

Moored boats at dusk in Chilmark, the water still and pale with the last of the sky.

Visitor rules, beach access and seasonal details are in our Martha's Vineyard FAQ.

More planning tips, beach details and up-Island ideas are in the Chilmark section on MV Vacation.

Chilmark on film

From Our Lens The up-Island quiet, in every light. 31 photographs · View the Chilmark gallery

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More photos: our Chilmark gallery. The rest of the island is in our photo galleries.

For the full 2026 guide with restaurants, events, and practical tips, read our Chilmark and Menemsha Complete Guide (2026).

Four free downloads · 2026 The Beach Guide, the Fall Guide, Where to Stay and What It Really Costs Every beach, the fall season date by date, every town and price band for a stay, and the budget guide: four PDFs, free with the island letter.

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