Murrells Inlet on the Waccamaw Neck: The MarshWalk, Drunken Jack's Island, Brookgreen, the New ER and Buying a Home in Georgetown County

Thirty-two empty rum casks and a skeleton. That is what Blackbeard's crew found, the story goes, when they sailed back into Murrells Inlet to the little island where they had buried their plunder and left a shipmate behind with the rum. Visit Myrtle Beach tells the tale of Drunken Jack, and the versions differ on whether the crew was gone a year and a half or two. No historical record backs it up. The island in the channel is still called Drunken Jack's, though, and a restaurant at 4031 US 17 Business still carries his name.

Murrells Inlet is an unincorporated fishing village of 9,740 people in Georgetown County, built along a tidal inlet and its salt marsh at the north end of the Waccamaw Neck, about 13 miles south of Myrtle Beach. That is the 2020 count in the Census Bureau's QuickFacts. Around the village you'll find the MarshWalk's restaurants, two versions of US 17, a hospital, a brand-new emergency room and, to the south, Brookgreen Gardens and Huntington Beach State Park.

I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, and I've been in the mortgage business since 1996. I'm a mortgage broker licensed in South Carolina through C2 Financial Corporation, based down the coast in Bluffton, and I help clients finance homes from the Grand Strand to Beaufort County. Horry County's growth, its road programs and the state's 4% and 6% assessment rules are on my Myrtle Beach area page. This page stays on the Inlet and the top of the Neck. I looked up every fact below in public sources on October 22, 2026, and I name the source where it matters.

Captain Murrell, John Morrall and the Friday fish club

Many accounts credit the name to Captain John Murrell. Wikipedia's Murrells Inlet article says he bought 2,340 acres that later became the Wachesaw and Richmond Hill plantations, with indigo as the first cash crop. Another account names an English colonist, John Morrall, who bought land on the inlet in 1731. The MarshWalk's own history page says the origin of the name is still a mystery, and that the post office made it official in 1913.

The inlet was a working port in the plantation years. Rice, indigo, turpentine, cotton and peanuts went out from here to Britain and the northern colonies, according to Visit Myrtle Beach's history guide, and Allard Belin bought Wachesaw Plantation around 1800. Those plantations depended on enslaved people to work the rice, and after the Civil War they went away.

The Hot and Hot Fish Club had its first clubhouse on Drunken Jack's Island. The club was a group of Waccamaw Neck rice planters who met on Fridays to fish, eat and drink. Historian Christopher Boyle's research, as WMBF reported it, puts that clubhouse, a one-room building, on the island's northern point. After a storm took it, the members rebuilt on a clam bank on Joshua John Ward's Brookgreen land, in what is now Huntington Beach State Park. It ended around the end of the Civil War. The Hot Fish Club restaurant on the inlet keeps the name going.

Half a mile of MarshWalk

The MarshWalk is a wooden boardwalk of about half a mile along the salt marsh, lined with restaurants and bars, and Georgetown County maintains it. In 2021 the county replaced its failing decking, guardrails and hardware in two phases while the restaurants stayed open. WMBF's coverage has the first phase starting on April 26, 2021, from the north end to the stretch between Dead Dog Saloon and the Claw House. The second phase began that July and covered the rest, along with Veterans Pier at the south end.

On September 30, 2022, Hurricane Ian flooded the MarshWalk. WMBF reported that most of its businesses were open again by that weekend.

The newest restaurant on the inlet is Inlet Shipwreck Bar and Grill, next door to Wicked Tuna, a pirate-themed seafood and comfort-food place that began serving on February 25, 2026. It took the building that had been Sloppy Jose's Cantina and, before that, Neptune's. That spring, MarshWalk Restaurant Week ran from March 2 to 6, with eight restaurants on fixed three-course menus. Up Business 17, a Mediterranean restaurant called Zeytin plans a location in the former Player 1UP arcade at 3264 US 17 Business, and I haven't seen an opening date yet.

The village calls itself the Seafood Capital of South Carolina, and the Post and Courier has run that as a headline. It's the Inlet's own name for itself, and I didn't find an official designation behind it.

Dredging the creeks, and the buoys that keep moving

If you own a boat, or plan to, the depth of the inlet is worth following. Georgetown County's permit application covers about 754,616 cubic yards from 16.49 miles of natural creeks and man-made channels, dredged in phases from November through March, as Dredging Today described it. Earlier plans aimed to start the work in the fall of 2025.

On September 4, 2026, WMBF reported that the Corps of Engineers and SCDNR were still surveying, with no start date. State Rep. Lee Hewitt estimated about three years of work once it begins. Shifting oyster beds mean "changing the buoys quite often," a Freedom Boat Club supervisor told the station. Closer to the restaurants, a blog post from GEL Engineering describes the dredging it designed for the county around the MarshWalk and Marlin Quay Marina.

The public places to put in are on both sides of the Neck. Georgetown County took over the Murrells Inlet Public Landing at 4139 Highway 17 Business from the state in 2017. Morse Landing Park at 4925 US 17 Business is the put-in for kayaks and small boats. On the other side of the Neck, Wacca Wache Marina at 1950 Wachesaw Road opens onto the Waccamaw River.

The cross on the inlet, the Fourth of July boats and 2,700 candles

Belin Memorial United Methodist Church, at 4183 Highway 17 Business, organized in 1925 in a frame plantation chapel that was moved to the site and dedicated in 1926. Some sources trace that chapel to Oatland Methodist (some say Oakland), which James L. Belin founded in 1836, and some credit Mrs. W. L. Oliver with arranging the move. The present church dates to 1992. In January 2024 the church unveiled state historical marker 22-71, which MyHorryNews covered as the first state marker along the inlet's salt marsh.

Since 1996, Belin has held the Blessing of the Inlet on the first Saturday in May. It runs from 9 to 2, and the blessing itself is at 10 in the morning, in front of the cross on the inlet. Admission and parking are free, rain or shine, and the proceeds go to local missions. In 2025 the church said the offering would help build a container home with Habitat for Humanity of Georgetown County.

On the Fourth of July, decorated boats leave Garden City Point, at the inlet's north mouth, and run past the MarshWalk. State Rep. Lee Hewitt and his friends started the parade in 1983. It was cancelled in 2020 and came back in 2021. The boats run at high tide, so the start time changes from year to year.

Murrells Inlet 2020, known around the village as MI2020, is a nonprofit that monitors the inlet's water quality and works to conserve it. Its Race for the Inlet, the 19th annual Bunny Run 5K, started from Morse Landing on April 4, 2026. Its 21st Oyster Roast was held in the Wicked Tuna parking lot on November 8, 2025, and I haven't seen the 2026 date yet.

At Brookgreen Gardens, Nights of a Thousand Candles runs on 21 evenings this season, from November 27, 2026 to January 3, 2027, from 4 to 9 p.m. More than 2,700 candles are lit by hand, WMBF reported in July, and tickets are sold only through Brookgreen and its ticketing partner.

Brookgreen Gardens, Atalaya and Huntington Beach State Park

Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington bought the land south of the village in 1930 as a winter retreat for Anna's health, because she had tuberculosis. They incorporated Brookgreen Gardens on July 13, 1931, as a nonprofit for American figurative sculpture and for the plants and animals of the Southeast, and it opened to the public in 1932. Brookgreen's own history puts it at 9,100 acres between the Waccamaw River and the ocean. Its Lowcountry Zoo is one of five institutions in South Carolina accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Atalaya, the Huntingtons' winter home, went up from 1931 to 1933, built by local laborers about 150 yards from the ocean. Archer Huntington died in 1955, and in 1960 the 2,500-acre tract was leased to the state as Huntington Beach State Park, by Wikipedia's account. More than 300 bird species have been recorded in the park. Atalaya and Brookgreen together became a National Historic Landmark district on October 5, 1992.

Two US 17s, SC 707 and a bike path down the Neck

Murrells Inlet has two US 17s, and locals call them Business 17 and the Bypass. Business 17 is the old road through the village, and nearly every landmark on this page has an address on it: the MarshWalk, Belin Memorial, Drunken Jack's, the public landing and Morse Landing. The Bypass runs parallel to it, farther inland, and Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital is on the Bypass. In September 2026, Georgetown County took bids on a safety project for Business 17 in Murrells Inlet, with crosswalks and pavement markings, according to the state's bid notice.

SC 707 starts at Business 17 in the village and heads west as two-lane Sunnyside Avenue. It crosses US 17 and turns north into Horry County through Burgess, about 12.6 miles in all. Off Sunnyside Avenue, Georgetown County Council gave unanimous preliminary approval to 115 condos and duplexes on about 11 acres, on a site the developer's attorney says has been a multi-family site for 45 years, as WBTW reported. The much larger HarborTrace plan on SC 707 in Burgess, on the Horry side, is covered on my Myrtle Beach area page.

In Horry County, SCDOT has been widening about 1.5 miles of US 17 between SC 707 and Harrelson Boulevard from four lanes to six. WMBF said in June that it was due by the end of this year, weather permitting.

The I2I path, short for Inlet to Intracoastal, is MI2020's project. Phase one connects Business 17 at Macklen Avenue to Waccamaw Community Hospital and runs across the Bypass to Old Kings Highway. Phase two would follow Wachesaw Road to Wacca Wache Marina on the Waterway, for four miles in all, and I found no date for it. Bike the Neck, the Waccamaw Neck Bikeway, is planned as 27 miles of path from the Horry County line in Murrells Inlet to the bridge into Georgetown. A new section in North Litchfield connected two pieces that were already built, and Hammock Coast SC counts about 16 miles of continuous paved path from Pawleys Island to Murrells Inlet. In April 2025, a new parking area for the path opened along Business 17 into Huntington Beach State Park.

The emergency room that opened in July, and Waccamaw Community Hospital

Grand Strand Health's Murrells Inlet emergency room opened on Thursday, July 16, 2026, the day after its ribbon-cutting and open house, as MyHorryNews reported. It is a freestanding ER of 10,000 square feet, with 10 exam rooms, a triage room, a lab, and X-ray and CT on site. Grand Strand Health put $17 million into it, and it brought about 50 jobs. Grand Strand Health broke ground in October 2025 with plans to open in October 2026, so the ER opened about three months early. Grand Strand Health keeps a page for the ER. It is one of three freestanding ERs the system planned, along with Little River and Conway, and the Conway one on Church Street is on my Conway page.

Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital, at 4070 Highway 17 Bypass, is Tidelands Health's hospital in Murrells Inlet, and Tidelands calls it a 125-bed hospital. Tidelands also runs an inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Murrells Inlet, one of two it operates with 69 beds between them. State oversight panels approved MUSC's takeover of Tidelands in 2025, and Jay Hinesley became Tidelands' CEO on July 1, 2026.

Waccamaw schools and St. James schools

A Murrells Inlet address can belong to either of two school districts, and the county decides which. Homes on the Georgetown County side are zoned to the Waccamaw schools of the Georgetown County School District, and listings name Waccamaw Elementary, Middle and High. Murrells Inlet addresses on the Horry County side go to Horry County Schools and its St. James schools.

Waccamaw Elementary opened the 2026-27 school year on its 50th anniversary, now serving kindergarten through third grade, as the Coastal Observer reported in August. Georgetown County's 2016 school bond paid for a four-classroom addition, a track, a weight room and tennis courts at Waccamaw High. On the Horry side, the St. James Elementary rebuild runs through 2028. Attendance zones are drawn address by address, so once you have a home in mind, please look it up with the district that serves it.

One ZIP code, two counties

Murrells Inlet, as the Census Bureau draws it, is in Georgetown County, with its northern edge on the Horry County line. The ZIP code reaches farther. ZIP 29576 is listed in both Georgetown and Horry counties by zip-codes.com, so Murrells Inlet mailing addresses reach into Horry County around Burgess and Garden City. The county a home is in sets its tax bill, its deadline for the 4% rate, its school district, which water utility serves it and which part of the wind pool's statute covers it.

The surest check is the parcel's own record in the county property search, which shows which side of the Horry County line the home is on. Once you have an address, I'm happy to go through that record with you.

Both counties have the same 2026 loan limits, conforming and FHA, so the county line doesn't change the largest loan a program allows here, and the box below this article shows them. The local Realtor association reports Garden City and Murrells Inlet together as one ZIP area, across both counties. Through August 2026, the single-family median there was $465,000 on 548 closed sales, and the condo and townhome median was $292,250 on 332, in the CCAR market report.

The Georgetown County tax bill, and January 15

Georgetown County's tax district for Murrells Inlet is District 41. A mill is one dollar of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value, and the county's millage sheet put District 41's total for tax year 2025 at 248.8 mills. Among its parts are the county's 71.6 mills and the school district's 146.0, which is 120.0 for operations and 26.0 for bonds. Another 28.0 mills goes to the Murrells Inlet-Garden City Fire District.

That fire district crosses the county line. It was created in 1966 and covers parts of both Horry and Georgetown counties, and its millage has gone up by referendum. In July 2023, voters approved going from 14 to 21 mills in 2024, plus up to 7 more at the board's discretion through fiscal 2028, as WMBF reported. Georgetown County's sheet shows the full 28.0 for 2025.

The 4% assessment for a home you live in is something you apply for, and the date on your calendar depends on the county. Georgetown County's assessor asks for the legal residence application by January 15 of the year after you buy, and the 4% covers only the part of the property you use as your residence, per the assessor's FAQ. Horry County asks for its application by May 31. The 6% rate and the 72-day rental limit are explained on my Myrtle Beach area page.

To put the millage in a home's terms, take the ZIP area's $465,000 median. At the 4% rate the assessed value is $18,600, so each mill adds about $18.60 a year. At 6%, for a second home or a rental, the assessed value is $27,900, and each mill adds about $27.90. The bill on the specific parcel is what I put in your payment.

Georgetown County mailed reassessment notices starting September 15, 2025. The county calls the reassessment revenue-neutral, because state law requires the millage to roll back afterward. Increases from it are capped at 15% over five years. The cap doesn't cover a home that sells, which is reassessed at full market value for the year of the sale, or one that has been significantly improved.

Flood, wind and water on a tidal inlet

This is a village built on a salt marsh and a tidal inlet, so on any address I'd look at the FEMA flood zone and the elevation certificate before you settle on a price. An elevation certificate is the surveyor's form that records how high the home is built. If the home is in FEMA's high-risk zone, called a Special Flood Hazard Area, flood insurance is required on your loan, and I put that premium in your payment. Georgetown County moved up to Class 7 of FEMA's Community Rating System in May 2017. That program rewards a county's extra floodplain work with lower premiums, and a county newsletter said Class 7 gives everyone in the county with flood insurance a 15% discount. It's the most recent class I found, so I'd confirm it on FEMA's current list.

The South Carolina Wind and Hail Underwriting Association, known as the wind pool, writes wind and hail coverage in a coastal area the state sets by statute. For Georgetown County, S.C. Code § 38-75-310 draws that area along the coast between the Harrell Siau Bridge and the Horry County line, east of a line that parallels US 17. In Horry County it is everything east of US 17 or the Bypass, whichever is farther west. An insurance agent checks a specific address, and the wind premium goes into the payment I qualify you on.

Georgetown County Water & Sewer District runs water and sewer on the Georgetown side, including in Murrells Inlet. In 2026 it put out to bid the rehabilitation of a pump station near 4331 US 17 Business. Grand Strand Water & Sewer Authority serves most of Horry County directly and also supplies some water and wastewater service to the Georgetown district. I'd ask the seller which utility bills the home, since the service areas are drawn address by address.

If you're thinking about renting the home out, I didn't find a Georgetown County short-term rental permit rule for Murrells Inlet. Please ask the county about its business license and rental rules before you count on that income. A home rented more than 72 days in a calendar year is assessed at 6%.

Your Murrells Inlet payment and pre-approval

Your monthly payment on a home here starts with the parcel's own tax bill, from Georgetown County or Horry County, at the 4% or the 6% rate. I add your homeowners and wind coverage, flood insurance if the home is in FEMA's high-risk zone, and any HOA or condo dues. Your water and sewer bill comes from the utility and stays outside the mortgage payment.

Getting pre-approved in South Carolina lists the documents I'll ask you to provide and what the letter tells a seller. Once you're ready, you'll see pricing for your own scenario and choose a rate option, and you can change that choice later. If you served, VA loans in South Carolina covers entitlement and the funding fee. If you already own on the Inlet, refinancing in South Carolina is where I'd start on your rate. Attorney closings and the rest of the state's rules are on my South Carolina page.

Estimates and educational information are not a loan approval or commitment to lend, and none of this is tax advice. The Georgetown County Assessor, or the Horry County Assessor for a home on that side of the county line, sets a parcel's value and whether it gets the 4% rate, so please confirm both with that office.

Common questions

Is Murrells Inlet in Horry County or Georgetown County?

By the Census Bureau's definition, Murrells Inlet is in Georgetown County, with its northern edge on the Horry County line. The 29576 ZIP code reaches into Horry County around Garden City and Burgess, so a Murrells Inlet mailing address can be in either county. The parcel's record in the county property search shows which one.

When is the deadline for the 4% property tax rate in Murrells Inlet?

On the Georgetown County side, the assessor asks for the legal residence application by January 15 of the year after you buy. On the Horry County side, the county asks for it by May 31. Without the application, the home is assessed at 6%.

Is the new Murrells Inlet emergency room open?

Yes. Grand Strand Health's freestanding emergency room opened on July 16, 2026. It has 10 exam rooms, a triage room, a lab, and X-ray and CT on site.

When will Murrells Inlet be dredged?

There was no start date as of September 4, 2026, when the Corps of Engineers and SCDNR were still surveying. Georgetown County's permit plan dredges the creeks and channels in phases from November through March, and State Rep. Lee Hewitt estimated about three years of work once it begins.

How did Murrells Inlet get its name?

Many accounts credit Captain John Murrell. Another account names an English colonist, John Morrall, who bought land on the inlet in 1731, and the MarshWalk's history page calls the origin a mystery. The post office made the name official in 1913.

What is the Blessing of the Inlet?

It is a festival Belin Memorial United Methodist Church has held since 1996 on the first Saturday in May, from 9 to 2. The blessing is at 10 in the morning in front of the cross on the inlet, admission and parking are free, and the proceeds go to local missions.