Bramley Mountain Fire Tower Announces Major Success in First Season

In the cab with the visitor book

Photo by Christopher Dragotakes

DELAWARE COUNTY — The first season that the Bramley Mountain Fire Tower was reopened was a huge success

In its first season, the Bramley Mountain Fire Tower was staffed by volunteer stewards for the 47 days on the tower calendar - every weekend and holiday from Memorial Day Weekend through Indigenous People’s Day. There were also numerous pop-up openings before, during and after the season.  Only two days were rained out despite the wet start to the spring/summer.   Stewards counted more than 100 people visiting the tower on five days during the season, and there were large numbers of visitors on the others. Our busiest day was October 11th, with 113 visitors to the mountain and 86 who climbed the tower.

With the opening of the tower, there was a huge increase in the number of hikers coming to the Bramley Mountain Trail this year. Visitor counts gathered by electronic trail counters installed near both trailheads recorded 2,217 hikers from between June 1st and August 31st of 2025. The number of hikers over the same dates in 2024 was 844.

The Bramley Mountain Fire Tower welcomed visitors from around the Catskills, from around the country and even around the world.  Some visitors to the tower could pick their house out from the tower windows while others came from as far away as Australia, New Zealand, all over Europe, Japan and South Africa. According to our visitor log, approximately 44% of the visitors came from the Catskills area (mostly Delaware, followed by Otsego, and Ulster counties). 21% come from the downstate metropolitan area and 22% came from nearby but more than 1.5 hours away (Binghamton, Cooperstown, Albany, Pennsylvania).  13% of visitors came from the U.S. outside the metropolitan area, such as California, Illinois, Arizona, and from other countries. 

Several school groups, environmental clubs, a boys’ camp and groups from various hiking clubs such as the Susquehanna chapter of the ADK, and the Catskill Mountain Club visited Bramley Mountain Fire Tower during the season.

The Bramley Mountain Fire Tower participated in the Light the Towers event and heard from folks who saw the tower lit from locations around the Delhi/Bovina/Bloomville area.  Bramley Tower lighters could see the lights from Mt. Utsayantha and Balsam Lake as well as the lights from the wind turbines in Windsor, NY. 

Tower stewards reported having a wonderful time staffing the tower, and visitors to the tower often remarked about how informative, helpful and all-around nice the stewards are. 

More stewards are needed for the 2026 season, so anyone interested in spending a couple of weekend or holiday days between Memorial Day weekend and Indigenous People’s Day on Bramley Mountain should contact us at info@bramleymountainfiretower.org.