DOMINION BEACH || CAPE BRETON || What is going on with this beach??

Come with me to… Dominion Beach Provincial Park!

In 2023 I decided it would be fun to try to visit all the beaches on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. I read somewhere there are around 80. It might take me 5 years, 10 years, maybe longer. We shall see. I’m going to start with Dominion Beach. This beach was designated as a provincial park in 1992… but you better know where you’re going because there are zero signs for this place. Zero. You could drive right by and have no clue there’s a beach here. It’s like it’s a secret - except for the fact that it’s on Google maps. 48 Lower Mitchell Ave, Dominion, NS
Ok let’s go……
What I like most about this beach is it is only a 15-minute drive from my home, Sydney NS, and it is completely free.
It has ample parking, a change house with men’s and women’s washrooms featuring handwashing sinks, flush toilets, change stalls and outdoor cold-water shower. There are picnic tables overlooking the salt marsh, and a lookoff for birdwatching.
The walk to the beach is flat and level and an easy walk for most. 160 meters to the beach.
The beach is a 1.5-kilometer stretch of sand, gently sloping to the water. Great for swimming. Besides swimming, you can beachcomb for sea glass and there is birdwatching. An interesting feature of this beach is the coaldust in the water due to the underwater Sydney Coalfield. You can catch a glimpse of the Newfoundland ferry in the Cabot Strait. The beach has strong cellphone signal and is conveniently located close to the cute town of Dominion, which has food options, convenience stores, liquor store, ATM, pharmacy drug store, new ballfield, splashpad, impressive playground and bus service.
I’ll be perfectly honest - some days you come here, and the beach will be gorgeous! Perfection! Then you’ll come back the very next day and you’ll find a different beach because the ocean decided to cough up a bunch of seaweed onto the shore. Or jellyfish. It’s the ocean. What can I say.
Let’s talk about the old boardwalk. This beach gets hammered in the winter. The storms here have not been kind to the boardwalk. Portions of the boardwalk have been destroyed or buried under stones. The portion of boardwalk that does remain is located around the midpoint of the beach and is becoming overgrown. The boardwalk is neglected. The province has invested money in a sewage treatment plant. And armour stone, however but they aren’t investing in a new boardwalk. It’s not being replaced. Much to the disappointment to locals.
Over the years the beach has enjoyed good news and bad news. In 2012 there was a 13-page report on the state of the beach and it’s future. A 3-priority plan was shared and work began in 2013. The Dominion Beach Preservation Society popped up in 2016. The public continues press the government for action. What the province will do for this provincial park remains to be seen.
The elephant in the room… is NS Power’s Lingan Generating Station which supplies Cape Breton with electricity. It is an eyesore however it doesn’t stop people from visiting this beautiful beach.
If you know someone who lives in Dominion, works in Dominion or loves Dominion Beach, share this with them.
Thanks!

GEAR:
Camera: iPhone and GoPro
Microphone: Blue Yeti
Software: Wondershare Filmora

PHOTO CREDIT:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
User: Capebreton, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

INQUIRIES: [email protected]