Cape Bonavista Lighthouse | Puffin Viewing | Provincial Historic Site | Newfoundland | Canada

Located along the very northern shores of Bonavista is Cape Bonavista Lighthouse. Located along the rocky cliffs, the light house found here has been keeping the area safe for those coming in from sea for many years.

Join us as we explore the outside and inside of this complex as we learn about the life of a lighthouse keeper and explore the grounds.

To our surprise, we also found out this location was a great spot to view puffins, a bird found in the northern stretches of Canada.

Learn more at www.destintionearth.ca or via wikipedia below:

"The lighthouse at Cape Bonavista was built between 1841 and 1843 to mark the entrances to Bonavista and Trinity bays and to aid mariners headed for Labrador. It is the fourth-oldest lighthouse in Newfoundland. The two-story wooden building is constructed around a masonry tower surmounted by a lantern.

The first lamps and reflectors came from the Bell Rock Lighthouse in Scotland. This apparatus was later replaced by a catoptric system from the Isle of May in Scotland, first installed in Newfoundland in 1850 by Robert Oke at the Cape Pine lighthouse, later moved to the Harbour Grace Island lighthouse, and finally to Cape Bonavista. Both the historic light mechanisms that ended up at Cape Bonavista, the one from the Bell Rock and the one from Isle of May were installed by Robert Oke, who served as the first Chief Inspector of the Newfoundland Lighthouse Service. In 1962 the lighthouse went dark, replaced by an electric light on a nearby steel skeleton tower.

In the 1970s the lighthouse was restored for use as a museum by the provincial government. The building contains furniture and artifacts representing the pre-1870 period. The rare catoptrics lighting system, made up of Argand oil lamps and parabolic mirrors of polished silver, is on display. Exhibits on local industry include coopering, fishing, whaling and sealing, as well as the ecological history of Cape Bonavista.

On August 3, 2001 a disastrous electrical storm struck Cape Bonavista. As lightning struck repeatedly all around the cape, the lighthouse tower was hit three times, igniting a fire. Quick action by the fire department prevented more severe damage."