The islands carry the town's best story. By long local legend, the privateer Captain William Kidd hid gold among the Thimbles before his capture in 1701 — names like Money Island and Kidd's Cove still nod to the tale, though no treasure has ever turned up. Most of the islets are private homes now, their cottages perched on bare pink rock, and the best way to see them is from one of the tour boats that thread out of Stony Creek harbor on a summer afternoon.
Branford itself is much older than the quarry. English settlers from Wethersfield laid out the town in 1644, under the New Haven Colony, on land bought from the Mattabesech in 1638; they first called it Totoket and later renamed it for Brentford in England. It sits on Long Island Sound about eight miles east of New Haven, roughly midway between New York and Boston, around the mouth of the Branford River — the only deep harbor between New Haven and New London.
Why People Visit Branford
Branford blends village greens with island-dotted coves. Visitors mix easy boat rides with libraries, beaches, and shoreline paths, all on Long Island Sound. It is peaceful, nautical, and neighborly, with year-round appeal in its parks, paths, and public spaces. Colonial shoreline history and everyday Connecticut life sit side by side here in a welcoming way, from the Town Green to the granite docks at Stony Creek.
