Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society

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Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society Securing the future of Nova Scotia lighthouses by creating and promoting a culture of preservation. Currently, many of these lighthouses are deemed surplus.

For LIGHTHOUSES OPEN HOURS 2026: https://www.nslps.com/news-events/community-news?c=lighthouses-open-hours-2026 The Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society (NSLPS) was founded in 1993 by lighthouse enthusiasts while on a visit to Sambro Island. The Sambro Island Lighthouse (1758) is the oldest working lighthouse in North America. They were concerned about the condition of the lighthouse and the keeper's houses. They set up the non-profit society to benefit all the 150 lighthouses in Nova Scotia.. NSLPS looks to assist and support local communities and community groups preserve their lighthouses, their heritage value, and their symbolic and social meaning to the nearby communities and the public coastal land where many of them are situated.

Starting in the 1800s Nova Scotia and Newfoundland began building lighthouses around their coastline to keep mariners sa...
10/05/2026

Starting in the 1800s Nova Scotia and Newfoundland began building lighthouses around their coastline to keep mariners safe on the seas. Both provinces had vast forests and skilled shipbuilders. Yet Nova Scotia used wood to build their lighthouses while Newfoundland mostly used interlocking iron-plates to erect theirs. Why the difference?

Newfoundland tended to build their lighthouses on top of cliffs that were inaccessible by land. It was easier to order from England a pre-fabricated iron-cast lighthouse that once checked out by engineers could be disassembled for shipping. Upon arrival in Newfoundland, curved sections weighing 3/4 of a ton each could be hauled up the side of cliffs by a small crew of men and then re-assembled on the spot using about 800 bolts.

In 1856 the Newfoundland Government successfully campaigned for the British Parliament to pay for an iron-cast lighthouse at Cape Race on the southeast tip of the Avalon Peninsula. When Newfoundland later stated that shipping tolls didn’t pay for its maintenance, its ownership was transferred in 1886 to the Canadian Government with a lump sum payment of a million dollars!

When the Cape Race Lighthouse was replaced in 1906 with a reinforced concrete tower, the iron-plated lighthouse was disassembled and shipped to Cape North on the northeast tip of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. There it replaced the existing lighthouse in 1911 and shone until 1978 when it was then decided to move the tower to a new location.

That new location was on the grounds of the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa, Ontario. For the third time the 800 bolts were removed and the iron plates sandblasted and painted before being erected for the 4th and hopefully final time.

The sand dunes of Sable Island kept changing in size and shape so that in 1951 the West End lighthouse was moved 2.4km (...
09/25/2026

The sand dunes of Sable Island kept changing in size and shape so that in 1951 the West End lighthouse was moved 2.4km (1.25mi) towards the island’s centre.

In 1958 the Life Saving Station was closed on Sable Island. With the departure of stevedores, career lightkeepers returned to tend the lighthouses. However they weren’t there long as both lighthouses were automated in 1960.

Without lightkeepers, it was decided to “modernize” the lighthouses on Sable Island. The West End Lighthouse was downgraded to a simple mast tower in 1971 while in 1973 a square metal tower painted white with vertical red stripe down middle of all four sides became the new East End Lighthouse. Finally in 1980 it was necessary to replace the West End mast tower with a new square skeleton steel tower dressed with red and white horizontal bands acting as a day marker.

Lighting systems also changed during this period. A rotating airport beacon was used on the West End tower while a huge solar panel charged 92 batteries at the East End tower that powered a flashing electric light. No one knows where happened to the 2nd order Fresnel lens, but in 2005 shifting sand revealed not only an old lightkeeper’s quarters but also twelve rusting barrels of diesel oil! To read about this very thorough and no doubt expensive cleanup, go to https://bit.ly/4yqZdLY.

In 2011 Sable Island was declared a National Park Reserve where now visitors must have permission to land. About 140 years after lighthouses were deemed essential to navigation, the East End Lighthouse was discontinued in 2012 and the West End Lighthouse in 2014.

09/25/2026

This is pretty neat to watch

No one had thought about the constant erosion of Sable Island’s coastline and sand dunes by wind, ocean currents and wav...
09/15/2026

No one had thought about the constant erosion of Sable Island’s coastline and sand dunes by wind, ocean currents and wave action. This movement of sand proved to be a big problem especially on the west end of Sable Island. There the lighthouse had to be rebuilt six times as opposed to only once on the east end.

In 1883 the West End Lighthouse was dismantled and re-erected on a new foundation 371 m (1217 ft) away from its original site.
Three years later (1886) it was decided to replace the West End lighthouse with an octagonal concrete tower with buttresses sited 2.4 km (1.5 mi) inland from the second site. Then 31 years later in 1917 a new white, wooden, pepper-shaker style lighthouse mounted on top of a tall, skeletal, steel tower was erected 400m away from the concrete West End lighthouse. The staircase to the top was enclosed in a round metal tube.

On the east end of the island, the sand proved to be more stable and the original lighthouse stood until it was destroyed in 1934 by fire. It then got a new look, a lantern room mounted on top of a tall, skeletal, steel tower. Access to the light was by a staircase enclosed in a square metal column.

Surprisingly the Island’s Life Saving Staff took over lightkeeping duties starting in 1935. The majority of staff were single men in their 20s called stevedores. Ships had to anchor offshore at Sable Island where cargo was lowered into surfboats that stevedores rowed to the beach. There the cargo was transferred to wagons pulled by Sable Island horses that had been tamed to work in harness.

One stevedore, Aubrey Dauphinee, spoke of working a lighthouse evening shift from sunset to 1am when another stevedore would take over until sunrise. During daytime, they had to clean all prisms of the Fresnel lens, wind up the weights to rotate the light at night, and check the level of mercury on which the light floated. If a top up was needed, it meant carrying a heavy container of mercury up nine flights of stairs!

The story of Sable Island lighthouses continues in our September 25 post.

Sable Island is a low-lying sand bar about 40 km (25 mi) in length and 2.4 km (1.5 mi) wide lying 156 km (97 mi) off Can...
09/05/2026

Sable Island is a low-lying sand bar about 40 km (25 mi) in length and 2.4 km (1.5 mi) wide lying 156 km (97 mi) off Canso and has been the site of about 350 shipwrecks. While a lifesaving station was established there in 1801, it wasn’t until 1873 that two identical tall octagonal wooden towers along with a powerful steam whistle was built on the west and east ends of the Island to warn mariners about the nearby dangers of Sable Island.

You could tell the two lighthouses apart as the East End lighthouse had a fixed light while the West End lighthouse had a revolving light. Also the East End lighthouse had one brown stripe painted down the middle of each of its white sides while the West End lighthouse was all white.

Each lighthouse had a 2nd order Fresnel lens whose light could shine out 29 km (18 mi) on a clear night and was tended by a lightkeeper and two assistants. All were provided with comfortable houses and shared two barns each sheltering two cows and a horse, unusual perks at that time.

There are stories of shipwrecked sailors dragging themselves to the lighthouses to seek help for their mates who could not manage the near-impossible swim to safety. In one case, the sailor said “seven” indicating the number of people on the ship while another held up four fingers, repeating the name “Himmy” that turned out to be the ship’s dog. Faced with such situations, lightkeepers had to ride to the Main Lifesaving Station immediately for assistance and as was noted in one report, one lightkeeper did so “at the risk of his own life” by going out into a roaring nor’easter. What great relief it was for horse and rider when five phones were installed on Sable Island to enable fast communication from one end of the island to the other in 1885.

(The story of Sable Island lighthouses continues in our September 15 post.)

Most people think that Cape d’Or was the first major NS lighthouse built on the northern shore of the Bay of Fundy. Not...
08/25/2026

Most people think that Cape d’Or was the first major NS lighthouse built on the northern shore of the Bay of Fundy. Not so! In 1884 a square wooden tower mounted on cribwork was erected on a sand bar on the main channel of water leading into Advocate Harbour. It had a 6th order Fresnel lens that projected a fixed red light for 11.3 km (7 mi) in clear weather.

The Fundy tides with their high tidal range eroded the sand bar and made it necessary to move the Advocate Harbour Lighthouse twice along the sand bar. Finally in 1888 it was moved to the opposite side of the channel and a dwelling attached to the lighthouse was built at the same time.

This lighthouse had seven lightkeepers, five of who had “Morris” as their last name. However it was World War I veteran, Vance Barteaux, who was hired in 1920 to tend the light seasonally from April to January. The Federal government had decided it was cheaper to hire veterans as lightkeepers than it was to pay them a pension.

Vance met his future spouse in France when he introduced himself by walking up behind her and giving her hair a tug. She returned his greeting by hitting him on the side of the head. Life is strange; the two married in 1919 and had seven children. Every spring the family plus a pig and some chickens would move out to the lighthouse and every fall they would move back to the village of Advocate Harbour probably to let the children attend the local school.

In 1958 the lighthouse became unmanned and in 1964 a fire destroyed the lighthouse. In its place a fluorescent orange skeletal tower was set up. Today a square metal tower covered with red and white slats marks the entrance to Advocate Harbour.

Port Hood is known today as the Beach Capital of Cape Breton Island. Yet it was not the sandy beaches that made the Gov...
08/15/2026

Port Hood is known today as the Beach Capital of Cape Breton Island. Yet it was not the sandy beaches that made the Government of Nova Scotia decide in 1853 to build there a square white lighthouse with a tiny attached dwelling. The area then had abundant fishing and coal seams to mine with cargo ships arriving on a frequent basis.

The lighthouse shone a red fixed light from its side facing north and a white fixed light from the side facing south. In spite of there being many sandbars to the north of Port Hood, there is no indication in any documents from that time that ships were advised to avoid the north entrance to Port Hood.

It was not an easy posting for the first lightkeeper and family as the kitchen was in the cellar of the dwelling and described as cold and damp. On top of that, barrels of oil for the lighthouse were stored in the cellar too. In 1862 an addition to the dwelling was built and in 1878 a water cistern to remedy a lack of ground water as coal seams ran under the lighthouse and no well could be dug.

It was the second lightkeeper that profited from the rebuilding of the dwelling in 1900 when 20th century technology now made it possible to make lights flash in a specific pattern. Therefore the red fixed light facing north was discontinued in 1910.

In 1938 the lighthouse burned down. It was not replaced as the Inverness and Richmond Railway now carried goods to markets and there was another lighthouse on nearby Henry Island. Instead a pole light was installed at the end of the wharf and later in 1950 it became the front light of a range pair with a small white tower acting as the rear light. The pole lamp was replaced with a skeleton tower in 1963 and this range pair was still guiding fishermen home in 1981 but was gone by 2001.

Hampton Lighthouse on the Bay of Fundy is the original white pepper-shaker style wooden lighthouse built in 1911. The l...
08/05/2026

Hampton Lighthouse on the Bay of Fundy is the original white pepper-shaker style wooden lighthouse built in 1911. The lighthouse is located at the top of the hill in the village of Hampton, overlooking the Government Wharf and still has its 6th order Fresnel lens that once amplified the light from a kerosene lamp.

Being in an area of extreme high and low tides made it a challenge to land lighthouse supplies. Barrels of kerosene had to be floated to the shore and then rolled uphill to the lighthouse. All that stopped in the 1940s when electricity came to the area and the lamp was replaced by a high wattage light bulb.

The lightkeeper lived in his own house in the village and walked daily to light the lamp in the evening and to extinguish it in the morning. He had an easier job when an electric bulb replaced the kerosene lamp. In 1973 when the light was automated, the services of a lightkeeper were no longer required.

Hampton Lighthouse may be original but it has seen many changes in fishing boats and practice; Canadian Coast Guard policies; and aid to navigation technology. The biggest change came in 2001 when its ownership was transferred to Hampton Lighthouse [and Historical] Society, the first non-profit organization in Canada to acquire their local lighthouse.

Visiting the Bay of Fundy? You still have a chance to get inside this lighthouse and climb to the top to admire the view and the Fresnel Lens. Open Days are Thursday to Sunday from 1pm to 4pm until the end of August 2026.

Kayaking around the islands of the Eastern Shore? Take a break from paddling and visit the NS Lighthouse Interpretative...
07/25/2026

Kayaking around the islands of the Eastern Shore? Take a break from paddling and visit the NS Lighthouse Interpretative Centre at Port Bickerton where there are two lighthouses (one active), one fog horn, a keeper’s house rental plus trails that meander through a unique range of coastal terrain.

Enjoy a more settled rural charm? The current Medway Head lighthouse is the 4th on the site and shows the way lighthouses are finding a purpose in the 21st century by acting as platforms to gather digital date for research in wave action, climate change and bat species counts. The unique-looking Fort Point Lighthouse is located in a park at the end of Main Street in Liverpool where you can climb up to the dormer to see a drum-shaped Fresnel lens that once shone out to guide mariners home.

You just can’t pass by a museum without stopping? The Seal Island Light is a scaled replica of the true Seal Island Lighthouse located two hours off shore, is part of the Barrington Museum Complex and contains stories about local lightkeepers. Fort Point Museum still has its lightkeeper’s house where you can refresh yourself with ice cream and outside see a beacon-style lighthouse that was quite common before the use of Fresnel lenses for lighting made having a lantern room necessary.

OPEN Hours 2026: https://www.nslps.com/news-events/community-news?c=lighthouses-open-hours-2026

Past Facebook Posts:
Medway Head: https://bit.ly/3RtghRK & https://bit.ly/4gTgLv0
Port Bickerton: https://bit.ly/4wlnUsT
Fort Point Liverpool: https://bit.ly/4vPJW63

Coming to view the highest tides in the world? Include visits to the six lighthouses located on the Bay of Fundy coastl...
07/15/2026

Coming to view the highest tides in the world? Include visits to the six lighthouses located on the Bay of Fundy coastline that open to the public and you will have a holiday to remember! Start in Hampton NS where the original lighthouse from 1911 still stands and its 6thorder Fresnel lens continues to shine at night. You can climb to the top to get a panoramic view of the area.

Down the road, Margaretsville Lighthouse built in 1859 is open to visitors who can climb to the second floor to see where the lightkeeper slept over during stormy periods to make sure the lighthouse stayed lit. Its black and white horizontal stripes made it unique among NS lighthouses.

Cross over at Windsor to the Noel Shore where the Walton Harbour Lighthouse awaits you. Recently relocated from the crumbling sandstone cliff, it is accessible to all on the ground floor with the choice to climb the stairs to the top. Ask and you may be able to wind up the clock-work gear that produced the flashing light seen in its working day!

A short drive down the road you can visit the replica of the 2nd Burntcoat Head Lighthouse. Located in a park you can take a break from the road and walk the trails, examine the ocean floor when safe to do so or watch the Fundy tides roll in and out.

Go round the end of the Minas Basin past Parrsboro and you can walk into the Port Greville Lighthouse next to the Age of Sail Museum. Lit in 1908 it shone until 1976 when the Groundhog Day storm washed all of Port Greville’s wharves and shipbuilding sheds out into the Basin. It was then shipped in two halves to the Canadian Coast Guard College in 1981 before its two halves were returned home in 2001 and reassembled into one lighthouse.

Twenty minutes down the road is the Spencer’s Island Lighthouse that had to be the one of the first lighthouses in NS acquired by a non-profit charity in 1989, two years after it was deactivated. Not content with keeping it in good shape, the Spencer’s Island Community Association got it reactivated as an aid to navigation in 2007.

For more details, visit www.nslps.com/news-events/community-news?c=lighthouses-open-hours-2026

Past Posts on: Margaretville https://bit.ly/4fvkA8k
Spencer’s Harbour https://bit.ly/4phLFzg
Walton Harbour https://bit.ly/4h8dbwV

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Halifax, NS

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