History changed hands on Chappaquiddick last week with the sale of the North Neck pondfront home known as the Big Camp, long owned by the Woodger family.

The buyers are Douglas and Catherine Halbert of Montclair, N.J. They paid $2.875 million for the old house and three acres with sweeping views of the outer Edgartown harbor, Nantucket Sound and the Cape Pogue gut. The sellers are Mary Kristin Swanson Woodger and Marshall Scott Woodger, trustees for a family trust. The sale closed on August 25.

“They are a really nice young family who love the place, and love it for what it is,” said Brad Woodger, whose great-grandfather Dr. Frank Marshall, a Boston dentist, built the house more than 100 years ago. “We found the right people.”

Perched high above the Cape Pogue gut.

Ray Ewing

Perched high above the Cape Pogue gut.

Ray Ewing

The house is surrounded by a nine-hole golf course, its rugged greens and roughs perched high above the sea. Called the Royal and Ancient Chappaquddick Links, the course is open to the public and also members for a fee.

The house and golf course together went on the market in 2012 with an asking price of $12.5 million.

But in the end the property sold without the golf course. George Bennett, a Chappaquiddick seasonal resident and North Neck neighbor, has taken ownership of the golf course through a partnership. The Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation has held a conservation restriction on the course since 1994, ensuring that it can never be developed.

The decision to sell the property took years of family conferences before reaching a reluctant consensus.

“This isn’t a sudden thing,” Mr. Woodger said. “We’ve had plenty of time to prepare ourselves.”

He concluded: “It’s bittersweet, but mostly sweet. It’s something we can’t take care of it anymore. We’d rather have somebody that can take care of it have it.”

Mr. Woodger, who has long lived near the Big Camp and writes for the Gazette, said he will return in summers to manage the golf course as he has for years.

And while other plans are still up in the air, one thing is definite about his next home.

“It’s going to be a new house,” he said. “My wife and I will go new construction, after having old for so long.”