Bells Island

Bells Island is a small, sparsely documented island in the sound waters off the southeastern shore of Roanoke Island, between Wanchese, Manteo, and Nags Head in Dare County. It shares its name with a better-known Bells Island in Currituck County — a lakeside campground community — but this is a separate, much quieter spot: an unbridged island reachable only by water, without public facilities or a marked landing.

What is confirmed about it is modest: government mapping records place it here, in the sound between Roanoke Island and the northern Outer Banks mainland, closer to Wanchese than to Manteo or Nags Head. Beyond that, there is little written about Bells Island specifically — no visitor-center write-up, no marked trail, no listed amenities. For boaters and paddlers working the shallow flats of Roanoke Sound, it functions more as a charted landmark than a destination, one more low, marshy island in a stretch of water dotted with them. If you are navigating this part of the sound, it is a useful reference point — just do not plan a trip around it expecting anything more developed than the island itself.