Peggys Point Lighthouse

Peggy's Point Lighthouse stands on a sweep of bare, pale granite at the mouth of St. Margarets Bay, on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia. The rock is the point of the place: huge smooth outcrops, rounded and polished by the ice sheets, scattered with boulders — glacial erratics — that the ice dragged from elsewhere and left behind when it melted. On this shelf of stone the small white lighthouse stands alone, the fishing village of Peggy's Cove tucked into the inlet behind it. It is widely described as one of the most photographed structures in Atlantic Canada.

A light has marked the eastern entrance to St. Margarets Bay since 1868, when the first, wooden lighthouse was built here. The present octagonal tower of reinforced concrete, about 15 metres tall, replaced it in the mid-1910s. It was automated in 1958 and is run by the Canadian Coast Guard; its light has changed colour over the decades, from white to green in the late 1970s and to red in 2007. For years the lighthouse also served as a small seasonal post office, whose letters left with a special lighthouse cancellation stamp, until it closed in 2009.

What draws people is the combination: the white tower, the rolling stone, the grey Atlantic, and the houses and fishing sheds of the cove. The granite looks gentle, but the sea is not, and the dark, wet rock near the water is where waves reach unexpectedly; a viewing platform was built in 2021 to give everyone a good look at the lighthouse without scrambling over the outcrops. The best light is early or late in the day, when the low sun warms the granite and throws the boulders into relief.

Getting there

Peggy's Cove is about 43 km southwest of downtown Halifax, reached along Route 333, the scenic Lighthouse Route. Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ) is about 54 km away in a straight line. The village lies at the end of the road along the coast, and the lighthouse is a short walk from the village.