Haig Point's Calibogue Club offers limited access to non-members

Haig Point, a private club on the northern tip of Daufuskie Island, recently unveiled its new dining club, a first step toward selectively opening to non-club members.

Guests will be invited to the club for special events that could begin one night per week as early as March, spokeswoman Beth Doughty said.

The club also might open its golf course to outside players in the spring, Doughty said.

Even though the national recession has slowed the pace of development in the Lowcountry, board members wanted to build the new dining facility to fulfill a pledge the club made five years ago to its members, Doughty said. The 4,500-square-foot dining facility is known as the Calibogue Club and offers dramatic views of the Atlantic Ocean, Calibogue Sound and Hilton Head Island's Harbour Town.

The new building will seat 77 and was designed to look like estates often found along the East Coast.

Haig Point's board of directors took control of the community's operations last year. It had previously been managed by a private company, Doughty said.

Haig Point is a 1,050-acre residential community accessible only by private ferry with a 29-hole golf course, clubhouse, fitness center and equestrian center.

Members and guests sometimes stay in a lighthouse built in the 1800s, Doughty said, and the community's welcome center is a mansion that originally was built in St. Simons, Ga., and moved by barge.

The community has 700 lots, some of which are for sale, Doughty said.

Members are only permitted to use electric carts to get around the community, which Doughty said began to develop in the early 1980s.