LocationsMassachusetts
Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts
Bunker Hill Monument
A 221-foot granite spike on a hill over Boston, standing where the redoubt was dug overnight in 1775, with 294 steps inside it and the whole city laid out at the top.
Researched from this park's own sources. Nobody's walked it yet.
Read this bit out
This whole hill was a battlefield, and afterwards people started building the tallest thing they could on top of it. Twice they ran out of money and had to stop. What finally finished it was a week-long fair run by women at Quincy Market, which raised a quarter of everything the monument cost — and the woman whose idea it was had already written “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. It ended up two hundred and twenty-one feet high with two hundred and ninety-four steps twisting up the inside, and the funniest part is that the Battle of Bunker Hill was mostly fought on the next hill over.
One of your three free places, or the Explorer Pass. What that costs
Before you go
- Time there
- Plan on about an hour and a half at the park.
- Parking
- There is no parking at the monument. The Park Service says to put Constitution Road, Charlestown in your GPS and use the Nautica garage by the Navy Yard — $14–$18 validated at the Navy Yard Visitor Center or the USS Constitution Museum, $25 a day otherwise. It is a 10 to 15 minute walk to the monument from there.
- Underfoot
- The walk from the Navy Yard is uphill through streets. The lodge and the base of the monument are step-free; the top is 294 stairs in a tight spiral, and it keeps its own hours — check them before you promise anyone the climb.
- Stroller
- A stroller works on some of it.
- Bathrooms
- There are bathrooms.
21 challenges written for this place
A game deals seven to fifteen of them, so no two visits are alike.
Every game includes this one
The Great Stone Spike
Find the enormous stone spike on top of the hill and walk all the way round the bottom of it.
A few of the others
All 294
There are 294 steps to the top. Climb them and count out loud. Try not to lose your place.
Round And Round
The staircase turns all the way round eight times on the way up. Count the turns.
How Many Rests
Before you start climbing, everybody guesses how many rests they will need. Then find out.
Eight Inches Each
Every step is eight inches high. Work out how many of your hands that is.
The Wrong Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill was mostly fought on a different hill called Breed's Hill. Decide whether the name should be changed.
Fat At The Bottom
The walls are six feet thick at the bottom and only two feet thick at the top. Work out why anybody would build it that way.
The rest are a surprise — that's the whole point.
Play this at Bunker Hill Monument
Free. Works with no signal once you're there.