Entry No. 42 — the Providence file — filed under: sea-cliffs
Purgatory Chasm (Middletown)
At the west end of Second Beach, the puddingstone cliffs split into a cleft roughly ten feet wide and fifty deep, with the ocean grinding away at the bottom. Newport's papers were already marveling at it by 1831, and local legend has credited the Devil with the cut for about as long. A short wooden footbridge spans the gap, so you can stand directly over the drop and watch the water churn below your shoes. Rhode Island DEM rangers lead occasional history walks from the little lot where Purgatory Road meets Tuckerman Avenue; the rest of the time it's just you, the wind, and a rock formally named Purgatory Conglomerate.
→ Three more weird outdoor & roadside oddities in Providence — never the same twice
The story
The rock came first, by about 300 million years. The Purgatory Conglomerate is a Pennsylvanian-age unit of the Narragansett Bay Group — cobbles set in a matrix, then stretched and flattened by two generations of Alleghanian folding and later shearing until the pebbles read like smears. Locals call it puddingstone. The sea found a line of weakness in it and has been working the same line ever since, opening a cleft roughly 120 feet long and about ten feet wide at the top, with the surf still grinding away at the bottom.
People have been coming to look for a long time. Newport's Herald of the Times was writing the chasm up by September 1831, well before the Gilded Age filled the island with summer houses, and local legend has credited the Devil with the cut for about as long. A short wooden footbridge crosses the gap, so you can stand over the drop and watch the water move under your shoes. Nothing is fenced, the rock lip rounds off toward the edge, and there is no railing between those two facts.
Nobody staffs it. The chasm sits where Purgatory Road, Paradise Avenue, and Tuckerman Avenue meet in Middletown — not Newport, despite a century of misattribution — above the west end of Sachuest Beach, the stretch surfers call Surfer's End. Rhode Island DEM rangers lead occasional free walks from that small parking lot, an hour or two covering the Revolution, the Gilded Age, presidential summer houses, and the conglomerate itself; they go rain or shine, and leashed dogs are welcome. The rest of the time it is the wind, the water, and a rock formation with a formal geological name.
What it's like
The walk from the corner lot takes about two minutes, which is why parking is the hard part. Then the ground simply stops. The bridge is short, and the honest version of the visit is that everyone edges onto it, looks straight down, makes a noise, and steps back. Wind comes off the water hard enough to change the plan; the conglomerate is grippy underfoot but the lip rounds away toward the edge, so this is not the place to walk backward for a photo. There is nothing here — no gate, no ranger, no restroom — which is most of the appeal. Ten minutes of looking is usually plenty, and then Second Beach is directly below you and Newport is a ten-minute drive.
The move: Time it for golden hour: park at the Purgatory Road–Tuckerman Avenue corner, take the two-minute walk to the footbridge, dare each other to look straight down, then walk Second Beach barefoot and drive ten minutes into Newport for oysters.
📍 Before you go Free, unstaffed, no facilities. The chasm sits at the corner of Purgatory Road, Tuckerman Avenue, and Paradise Avenue in Middletown, above the west end of Second (Sachuest) Beach; the parking lot there holds only a few cars and fills on summer beach days — the Second Beach lot (fee in season) is the overflow. The drop is unfenced and the rock lip rounds off, so keep dogs leashed and skip it in rain or high wind.
- 📍 Middletown
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- The Bodhi Spa — Ten minutes away on lower Thames Street in Newport: a two-and-a-half-hour hot-cold hydrotherapy circuit, which is the correct response to an hour of standing in Atlantic wind.
- Fort Wetherill State Park — Across the bridge in Jamestown, the same coastline in a different key — 100-foot granite cliffs with graffiti-covered gun batteries and pitch-black magazine corridors instead of a single split in the rock.
- Rocky Point State Park amusement ruins — Roughly on the way back to Providence in Warwick: another free, unstaffed stretch of Narragansett Bay shoreline, this one haunted by a World's Fair arch and a 1906 ride tower rather than by geology.
More weird in Providence
Good to know
Where do I park?
The small lot at the corner of Purgatory Road, Paradise Avenue, and Tuckerman Avenue — it holds only a few cars and fills on summer beach days. The Sachuest (Second) Beach lot is the overflow and charges a fee in season. Off-season or early morning, the corner lot is usually empty.
What does it cost, and are there facilities?
Free and unstaffed, with no restrooms, no water, and no concessions at the chasm. Second Beach immediately below has concessions, showers and bathrooms in season, which is the nearest option.
Is there a guided version?
Yes, occasionally. RI DEM park rangers run free ranger-led walks that meet at the corner parking lot, typically at 10 am, running one to two hours and covering the Revolution, the Gilded Age, presidential summer houses and the Purgatory Conglomerate. No registration; they go rain or shine. Check riparks.ri.gov for dates, or email [email protected].
How safe is it with kids or a dog?
The drop is completely unfenced and the rock lip rounds off rather than ending in a clean edge, so hold small hands and keep dogs leashed — leashed dogs are explicitly allowed on the ranger walks. Skip it entirely in rain or high wind, when the conglomerate turns slick and the gusts off the water are genuinely strong.
Is this the same Purgatory Chasm as the one in Massachusetts?
No. That one is a boulder-choked glacial gorge in Sutton, Massachusetts. This is a sea-cut cleft on the Aquidneck Island shore in Middletown, Rhode Island — and despite being routinely credited to Newport, it is not in Newport either.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: smithapplebyhouse.org · riparks.ri.gov
last checked: 2026-08-25