Fogo Island

Fogo Island sits off the northeast coast of Newfoundland, a treeless place of granite, bog and small outport villages that nearly emptied when the cod fishery collapsed. In the 2000s Zita Cobb, who grew up here, put a large share of a technology fortune into a foundation that built six angular architect-designed artist studios on remote parts of the shoreline and a striking inn on stilts at Joe Batt's Arm, with the surplus returned to the community. The result is an unusual mix of contemporary architecture and unchanged outport life: root cellars, stages over the water, and paths across the barrens. Icebergs pass in early summer and the island claims one of the flat earth society's four corners.

What you actually see

• The artist studios - six angular buildings on remote stretches of shore.
• Brimstone Head - the headland named as one of the earth's four corners.
• The outport villages - stages, flakes and root cellars still in use.
• Icebergs - drifting past the north shore in late spring and early summer.

When to go

June to September, with icebergs typically from late May into June and the best weather in August. The ferry runs year-round but is weather-dependent and queues for vehicles in summer. Many businesses close from October.

Honest expectations

Getting here is a commitment: four hours from Gander to the ferry, then a crossing that fills with cars in summer and is cancelled in weather. The inn is extremely expensive and books far ahead; the island is perfectly visitable without it, but other accommodation is limited. The studios are working artist spaces, generally viewed from outside rather than entered. Fog is common.

Nearby

Twillingate and its iceberg coast are two hours from the ferry; Gander is the air gateway.