Ferryland Head Lighthouse

About 45 minutes further south from Bay Bulls is the lovely town of Ferryland. The road is referred to as the Irish Loop, telling you a bit of where the original immigrants came from.

We first visited Ferryland in August 2007. It was an obvious place to look for the lighthouse, since it had become known for the gourmet picnic lunches being served there and had been nicely fixed up.

In the coming days I will mention ferries a lot. They are an important part of the transportation network here in Newfoundland and Labrador. But there is no ferry in Ferryland. The name is derived from the name given by Portuguese fishermen, “Fariahm”, and the French name, “Forillon”.

Ferryland was originally founded by George Calvert, also known as Lord Baltimore, in 1621. He left a couple of years later to set up his namesake colony in Maryland. Perhaps he did not like the weather. Excavations of the original Ferryland settlement began over 30 years ago and continue to this day.

We had decided to skip the picnic lunch since it was quite difficult to get a reservation and instead opted for lunch at the café near the visitor centre. We then took the 25-minute hike along a gravel trail to the lighthouse. It is an easy walk on a nice day, but can be a bit tough on a windy one, such as when some friends visited in September 2018.

The Ferryland Head Lighthouse was built in 1870. The tower was made of brick and needed constant repairs so that it was eventually encased in iron, which is painted bright red.

Kite flying behind the lighthouse

One spring we drove down to see a large iceberg that was grounded in Ferryland. It had nothing to do with the lighthouse, but the secondary subject of this blog is showing off my many photographs of places that are somewhat close to a lighthouse.

Consistent with above rules, I am including some from a trip to Brigus South which is about 15 minutes away. These were taken back in September 2010. I have not returned, so wonder how many of the old fishing structures are still there. Two days after I took these, hurricane Igor hit Newfoundland and caused devastating damage to much of the province.