Cape Race, Powles Head and Cape Pine Lighthouses

After our first visit to the Ferryland lighthouse back in August 2007, we drove down the Irish Loop to see a couple of other lighthouses. This was part of an outing that I planned on the spur of the moment. I did this several times during those years, identifying lighthouses to visit, and telling Po that we were heading out for the day.

The Cape Race lighthouse is at the end of a 20-kilometre drive on a rough gravel road. It was a treeless expanse. There was one lonely house.

We passed through the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve. You can guess why a place on the North Atlantic might be named Mistaken Point. You can imagine the number of shipwrecks (over 50 known) and the reason why they built a lighthouse. Mistaken Point is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, known for its preserved fossils that date back hundreds of millions of years. You might be expecting me to post some fossil photos. But I am embarrassed to admit that I have never taken any. Visitors must take a guided tour. The timing was not good that day. We had stopped at the interpretation centre in Portugal Cove South and were told that the we would have to wait a few hours for the next tour. Our planned re-visit has yet to occur. Maybe we will do it this year as part of our staycation or when you come to visit us.

The Cape Race lighthouse was built in 1856. It is now a National Historic Site. We were able to go into the lighthouse. The inside was all open, including the winding concrete staircase to go up to the light. It was a challenge for me with my fear of heights, but I was really pleased that I made it to the top.

A wireless station was installed at Cape Race in 1904, three years after the first transatlantic signal was sent from Signal Hill in St. John’s. The Cape Race station was the first land-based wireless to respond to the distress call from the Titanic in April 1912.

After Cape Race we drove back down the rough road and turned left to Trepassey in order to find the Powles Head Lighthouse. Once we reached Trepassey, it required a rough drive of 4 km down a gravel road to the end of a peninsula that forms the southern shore of Trepassey Harbour. The lighthouse was opened in 1902. The current tower was built in 1960.

We checked out the view from The Point where we could see both the town and back down to the lighthouse. The cannon was part of a battery that was used during the American war of independence against privateers disrupting the fishery.

I had originally planned on four lighthouses that day, but it was quite late by the time we were leaving Trepassey, and we had a long drive home, so I decided to skip the fourth one, Cape Pine. I thought we would be back within a year, but it took us until August 2011 to finally drive to Cape Pine. Since a logical lighthouse excursion would be the three southern lighthouses of Cape Race, Powles Head, and Cape Pine, I will include the 2011 Cape Pine outing in this post.

It would have only taken about 30 minutes to get from Trepassey to Cape Pine, but it was 2.5 hours from Pouch Cove. Cape Pine is the most southerly point in Newfoundland.

It was a beautiful day. We had to drive about 8 kilometres on a gravel road, but it was quite easy to get to. As at most lighthouses, we were all alone as we walked around. The curved sections of the lighthouse had to be hoisted up a cliff and then carted to the construction site. It was completed at the end of 1850 and lit on January 1, 1851. The station was automated in 1996.