Day trips from Nashville · Park
Old Stone Fort
63 miles from downtown Nashville · about 1 hour 10 minutes
Tennessee State Parks, Manchester, TN
Old Stone Fort is a 2,000-year-old Middle Woodland ceremonial enclosure built between roughly 30 and 430 AD, using the cliffs above the Duck River to enclose about fifty acres. It was never a fort. Settlers guessed wrong and the name stuck.
- Age
- Built roughly 30 to 430 AD
- Enclosed area
- About 50 acres
- Park size
- 876 acres
- Address
- 732 Stone Fort Drive, Manchester, TN
Permits, fees and access
Free entry. Camping is bookable through the state park system.
One thing to know first
The waterfalls on the Duck River here are the reason most people come and the archaeology is the reason it matters. Read the interpretive signs before you walk the loop or you will miss what you are standing on.
Access rules, fees and closures verified August 15, 2026 against the agency that manages this place. They change, sometimes without notice. Check before you drive.
The neighborhoods closest to it
If this is the kind of Saturday you want a short drive from your front door, these are the parts of Middle Tennessee that put you nearest to it.
I keep this list because it is genuinely how people spend weekends here, and because almost every guide to it is out of date. If you are weighing a move to Middle Tennessee and want to know which part of it puts you closest to the things you actually like, ask me. No pitch.