from here you can see fort Amherst at the entrance to St Johns harbour and the Cabot Tower high on Signal Hill
the beds certainly were not roomy
this is the old lighthouse, high on the rocks
fog? look at that clear sky!
the new lighthouse came into operation in 1955
looking back at the parking lot and visitors center
1839 inventory
negotiating the boardwalk to the new lighthouse and info center
the announcement from 1836 for the Cape Spear Lighthouse
Southeast of St Johns a characteristic landtongue protrudes into the Atlantic Ocean, the most easterly point of North America.
The Portuguese named this landmark Cabo da Esperance but the English just call it
Cape Spear.
High on the rocks
stands one of Newfoundland's oldest lighthouses, built in 1836 and decommissioned in 1955 when a more modern concrete lighthouse was
erected nearby.
The
old lighthouse was restored to the 1839 situation and is now a National Historic Site where
you can see how the lighthouse keeper and his family lived.
To protect St Johns harbour and the
Allied WW II convoys against sneaky
German submarine attacks, bunkers, barracks and guns were installed. That hardware is still here as a silent witness
of those hectic and dangerous times.
Cape Spear is a popular place for iceberg and whale watching and functions also as trailhead
for the
East Coast Trail.
We visited Cape Spear in September 2017, peeked inside the old lighthouse and thoroughly enjoyed the
scenic environment.
