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.

History

The Beothuk travelled Fogo Island for many hundreds of years, following the seal and salmon fisheries and going out to the Funk Islands for feathers and eggs, and migratory French fishermen came from the early 16th century until 1718. The first permanent European settlements, Fogo Harbour and Tilting Harbour, date from the 18th century, and by 1750 the island was a thriving part of the fish trade run from West Country towns such as Poole; in the 1950s its people turned down plans to resettle them elsewhere, and in 1967 the island gave its name to the Fogo Process, when Fred Earle of Memorial University and Colin Low of the National Film Board shot 27 films with the islanders about their own concerns (Wikipedia, Fogo Island, Newfoundland and Labrador).

What's there

• 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.

What to expect

Getting here is a commitment: a drive 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.

Key facts