Cape Forchu Lighthouse

The present light at Cape Forchu was built in 1962 to replace an 1839 tower, and its unusual profile is functional: the concrete shaft is waisted in the middle, wider at base and lantern, a shape sometimes called an apple core, designed to shed the wind that batters this exposed point. Champlain named the cape in 1604 for the forked shape of the harbour entrance. The keeper's house holds a small museum and a tea room. The rocks below are volcanic and folded, and the walking trails on the point pass through a landscape scoured bare by weather. Storm watching in autumn is a local pursuit.

History

The first lighthouse was built in 1839 and lit in 1840, and it was replaced in 1962 by the present apple core tower; its original Fresnel lens has been in the Yarmouth County Museum since 2000. On 1 June 2000 it became the first working light station in Canada to pass from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to a municipality, for one dollar, and it was made a heritage property of the municipality in 2001 and of Nova Scotia in 2003 (Wikipedia, Cape Forchu Lighthouse).

What you'll find

• The apple-core tower - a waisted concrete shaft built for wind resistance.
• The keeper's house - a museum and tea room in the light station.
• The folded volcanic rock - the shore below the point.
• The storm watching - the exposed cape in autumn weather.

When to go

May to October for the museum and tea room; the grounds are open year-round and autumn storms are a draw. Fog is frequent in summer and can hide everything.

Practical notes

The tower interior is not open to the public. The museum is small and seasonal. Fog can obscure the entire point for days at a time.

Nearby

Yarmouth lies east; Brier Island is north.

Key facts