Cape Bear Lighthouse

Last Saturday afternoon, my husband came home from work early. He was interested in going for a little road trip. I will be honest with you and share that I wasn't really up to dropping everything and taking off in the car...but I am so glad I did! 

Celeste and I wanted to go visit lighthouses this summer and we still hadn't. We chose to go to the East side of the island. There are a few lighthouses that we can go inside and visit on Prince Edward Island, Cape Bear Lighthouse and Marconi Station is one of them. 

Cape Bear Lighthouse is a little past Murray Harbour, on the Southeastern tip of the island. It looks over the Northumberland Strait and was built in 1881. 

From the top of the lighthouse, we can see the coast of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island. The red cliffs of Prince Edward Island are always great to see from a little higher too. 

Being up in the top of a lighthouse is one of my favourite places. It is beautiful to see the views all around and I always feel very safe there. Celeste loves it too. We are hoping to visit a few more lighthouses before school starts. 

Cape Bear Lighthouse also is home to the Marconi Station. It was very interesting to read more about this at the lighthouse museum and on their website. Here is the historical significance related to the Titanic: 

On the night of April 14, 1912, Bartlett received the first distress signal in Canada from the Titanic as it was sinking off the coast of Newfoundland. A similar station at Cape Race in Newfoundland was in communication with the Titanic, but at that time Newfoundland was not a part of Canada. The Cape Bear Marconi Station ceased operations in 1922, and the building that housed the station was sold to Robert Glover in 1929. The structure now serves as a family home in Guernsey Cove. from Cape Bear Lighthouse website. 

Information about Cape Bear Marconi Station, a sodium vapor bulb,
and a model of Cape Bear lighthouse and the Marconi station, as well as the 165ft high pole.

The Prince Edward Island Lighthouse Society has a great website for learning more about the lighthouses on the island. If you want to read more about Cape Bear Lighthouse, check out this page. 

To see more of our adventures on Prince Edward Island, click on  this page which has a list of all my "Explore PEI" blog posts.