Brigus Point Lighthouse and Green Point Lighthouse

I will now move on around the bay and show you two lighthouses at the bottom of Conception Bay, at the start of the Baccalieu Trail, a loop on the western side of the bay which contains wonderful scenery and lots of history.

The first town to be visited is Brigus, a pretty town nestled into the hills on a sheltered harbour. The town retains a nice historic feel with many large traditional salt box homes harkening back to historic prosperity based on the fishing and sealing industries. Rock walled canals lead into the harbour. Unfortunately, there are some newer giant homes on the waterfront.

The trail to lighthouse requires a quick climb to the top of a hill with a great view of Brigus. A couple of the photographs are from 2009 when I thought I would do three lighthouses but ended up recalibrating and only visiting two. The trail was not well marked, which caused us to do a lot of back tracking when we found ourselves at the edge of cliffs. That made an hour and a half hike take about two hours. It was a beautiful day, and the views from the trail were spectacular.

The lighthouse began operation on March 1, 1885.

There was a sad moment as we were leaving the lighthouse. The winds were blowing hard (not unusual at lighthouses), and a gust blew Po’s cap off her head and far down the cliff.

We first visited Brigus back in 2006 on our introductory tour. We stopped at Hawthorne Cottage, the former home of Captain Bob Bartlett. Captain Bob spent more than 50 years exploring the waters of the North and led 40 expeditions to the Artic. He was the captain on the ship that took Robert Peary on his attempts to reach the North Pole.

On this 2010 trip we spent the night at a B&B in Brigus so that we could see a couple of plays in the adjoining town of Cupids. The plays were done by Perchance Theatre at their open-air Elizabethan style playhouse. The old show must go on adage came into play during the evening performance. A downpour began during the last 15 minutes. We were under cover, but the rain really made a racket on the roof, requiring an effort from the actors to be heard. It was still pouring when the play ended, requiring an effort by us to get back to our car, a bit soaked.

Cupids was the first English colony in Canada and second in North America. The first settlers arrived in 1610, so the town had a big 400-year anniversary celebration in 2010. We visited the Cupids Legacy Centre and toured the archaeological site before attending the afternoon play.

The Green Point Lighthouse is not far away. Although you could easily do both lighthouses on the same trip, we visited this one at Christmas time in 2007. Shortly after our return to our then seasonal residence in Pouch Cove, I planned a Saturday outing. I identified this lighthouse on the Port de Grave peninsula, which juts out into Conception Bay near the town of Bay Roberts.

Similar to Brigus, Bay Roberts and Port de Grave were important cod fishing and sealing centres, hence the need for the lighthouse, which was built in 1883, just before the Brigus Point Lighthouse.

It was an easy walk to the lighthouse. One thing about visiting Newfoundland lighthouses, you do not have to fight the crowds of tourists. This is especially true in December. But it was a nice sunny day, a little cool, but warm for December.

Afterwards, we stopped at the harbour in Port de Grave. The boats were decorated for their annual boat lighting, when all the boats in the harbour are decorated for Christmas. Long discussed, we are still waiting to see that. The drive is not that bad in the daytime, but the thought of driving it at night during the early winter tends to keep us in front of the wood stove at home.

The area is packed with Newfoundland history. On our first trip to Newfoundland we stayed two nights in Harbour Grace. While there we learned a couple of different sides to Newfoundland history. Harbour Grace was an important centre in early transatlantic air travel. An air strip was constructed in 1927 and was the starting point for many air adventures, including the take off for Amelia Earhart’s feat of doing the first transatlantic solo flight by a woman, after taking off from Harbour Grace on May 20, 1932. She landed in Northern Ireland 13.5 hours later.

Then there was piracy. The famous pirate, Peter Easton, arrived in Newfoundland in 1612 and had his headquarters in Harbour Grace. Note that he arrived about the same time as the settlers in Cupids. We learned much of this at the Conception Bay Museum. It was not officially open that day, but on hearing that we were tourists leaving the province a couple of days later (who knew?), the nice lady let us in.

Peter Easton

We stayed at The Rose Manor Inn. I have not tried to find the names of all the places where we stayed during our early days in Newfoundland, but this one is worth remembering.

To show a few of the other things you might see in this area, here are a couple of iceberg photos taken in Spaniard's Bay in June 2007.

Be sure to stop at the scenic lookout just north of the town of Burnt Point when you drive up the Baccalieu Trail.