Bell Island Lighthouse

The next lighthouse I will show you is on Bell Island, in Conception Bay. Conception Bay sits on the northeast side of the Avalon Peninsula. Bell Island is on the St. John’s side of the bay. It is not far from where we live, requiring only a 25-minute drive west to Portugal Cove to get close. Then you need to take the ferry.

Here is some trivia which might be useful when you get here and wonder about the names of places. The actual name of this town with the ferry is Portugal Cove-St. Philips. Awkward hyphenated town names are common in Newfoundland. Years ago, many Newfoundland towns were encouraged (forced?) to amalgamate with their neighbours. Sometimes they came up with a new name, sometimes they combined their names, and sometimes town names were lost to the larger town. So, in our area of the Avalon we can drive to Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove and then on to Conception Bay South, an amalgamation of nine communities. Just think how long that name could have been. In our town, the community of Shoe Cove was forced to join Pouch Cove in 1987, but Pouch Cove did not change its name. Some long-term Shoe Cove residents are still upset about that, the joining and taxes were one thing, but losing their town name is still a sore point. Shoe Cove might be lost, but the name remains as a highway sign. If you visit Pouch Cove, do not be surprised to suddenly see that you are in Shoe Cove. But you really are in Pouch Cove.

The ferry terminal is in the Portugal Cove part of the town. Many Bell Island residents commute to St. John’s, although the weather and mechanical condition of the two ferry vessels makes that a bit difficult at times. The morning traffic report in St. John’s includes the ferry status. A common report might be, “The Flanders is running solo across the tickle.” The translation is that there is only one ferry in operation. A tickle is the Newfoundland term for a short narrow strait.


The number of ferries in operation is obviously quite important, especially during the busy summer season. It has seemed to me that the word broken is almost always included in news about Newfoundland ferries. Often one of the ferries is unavailable for the Bell Island Ferry, either due to mechanical issues, or because they are being used as a replacement ferry for another provincial ferry service where they only have one vessel.

The weather is a bigger issue for Bell Island. Stormy weather can shut it down. Once in awhile it can even be ice. We get ice floes from the artic in late winter and early spring.

As I write this, the Newfoundland and Labrador Marine Services Status Board shows 14 different ferry routes being run by the provincial ferries, although some of the Northern routes are closed for the season. I have only been on three of those. Later I will do a post about one ferry that we could not take. It was broken. There used to be many more before communities were resettled by the province. I could not find the number of discontinued ferry routes, but considering the hundreds of resettled communities, there must be dozens of such routes. Since this is a travel blog and not an academic paper, I will not contact the library (which might be closed due to the pandemic) to find out.

Although we talk about going back every summer, after all these years we have only been to Bell Island once, on a Saturday afternoon in July 2007. We arrived at the ferry terminal and found only a few cars in line. Both ferries were running. We only waited about 10 minutes before driving on. We have heard stories of long waits for the ferry, which is a major reason why we do not just drive over on beautiful summer days.

After parking our car, we walked up to the top deck for the crossing. It was a glorious mid-summer’s day. We could see the impressive cliffs of Bell Island as we approached. There were many boats on the tickle (you know that term now). It only took about 20 minutes to reach the island.

Once there, we turned left to see what was down that way. Since the island is only about nine kilometres long and three kilometres wide, it did not take long to drive to the end and then make our way back to the north side. We passed through the one town, Wabana, and carried on till we arrived at the lighthouse.

In the 1890’s small scale mining was started on the island. By 1935 Bell Island was the second largest centre in Newfoundland. The population grew to over 11,000. The mine, which had started on the surface, now had long shafts of up to five kilometres underneath Conception Bay. But, as with all mines, it eventually had to close. This one did in 1966. And, as with all mining booms and busts, the island’s population went back down. It is now around 2,000.

During WWII, the mine was a major supplier for Cape Breton’s steel mills, and vitally important to Canada’s industry. It therefore became the target of German submarines. They torpedoed the iron ore pier and sunk four ore ships, with the loss of 69 men.

The lighthouse was built in the 1930’s at the request of the steel company operating the mine. The Bell Island Lighthouse is in one of the most spectacular spots of all the Newfoundland lighthouses that I have visited. In fact, it was even closer to the edge of the cliff before it was moved in 2004, due to the danger caused by erosion.

After the lighthouse we visited the mining museum where we were able to go down into the shafts. That same year we had visited the Cape Breton Miners Museum in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia on our trip from Toronto. Glace Bay was an old coal mine. Now we were in an iron ore mine. I was glad that I never had to work in either type of mine. It was interesting that the two communities, so tied to the sea, would be home to mines, so that young men could go far underground or out on the ocean, both dangerous places.

We do visit Portugal Cove-St. Philips quite often. We go there for fish & chips. We have two favorite places there, one beside the ferry in Portugal Cove and the other one on the St. Philips side, By the Beach, which is pictured here. By the way, when we say fish here in Newfoundland, we mean cod.