TRAVEL LIKE A LOCAL | Top 10,000 Places to Visit in Canada
The page created by Thomas Marzec | University of Manitoba | Photo by Pierre Lesage, flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Brimstone Head Trail is a 1.1-kilometre moderately trafficked out and back trail located at Brimstone Head Park and features beautiful wild flowers and spectacular views.
The trail is primarily used for hiking, walking, nature trips, and bird watching and is best used from May until November.
Brimstone Head is one of the four corners of the Flat Earth. This is a perfect photo, picnic spot, and an incredible spot to enjoy the sunset.
Photo: townoffogoisland.ca
The Herring Cove Art Gallery and Studio overlook the head of Shoal Bay on Highway 334 between Fogo and Joe Batt’s Arm. While the beautiful location is reason enough to stop and take in the picturesque view, do not miss this lovely little gallery and studio.
Artists Winston and Linda Osmond have created many high-quality pieces for sale, displayed nicely in their saltbox studio. There is a high standard of craftsmanship and artistry in handcrafted goods.
There are paintings, quilts from recycled fabrics, shopping bags with the familiar ‘heads and tails’ sailfish template on them, and superbly handcrafted wooden models of saltbox houses, outhouses, and the fishing stages (to highlight just a few of the handcrafts on sale here).
There’s also a great range of jams and preserves made from local produce, for example, Partridge Berry Jam.
Photo: herringcoveart.com
Home to some of the most powerful and influential people in the history of Fogo. Bleak House represents the differences between the merchant class and the fishing class in the community from a century ago.
The dwelling was built around 1816 for local merchant John Slade. When he retired, it was bought by his then-partner, Henry Earle. Earle Sons and Company operated a successful import-export business but was forced to close in 1967, following the fishery’s collapse.
In 1983 the house was made a gift to the Town Council of Fogo. It was already beginning to disrepair after being abandoned for so many years. The town received funding to restore the house and transform it into a museum.
It was made a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. It became the first building in the province to be restored through the foundation’s restoration program.
Photo: heritagenl.ca
The Brett House Museum was built around 1870 by John Brett and was extended by John’s son Charles.
Charles spent time in England during WWI and was inspired by the architecture of British homes. The scalloped shingles on the outside of the extension are all hand-carved by Charles. His wife Matilda was a gifted craftswoman, and her hooked mats are on display.
The house remained in the Brett family until 1997, and the interior and the exterior remain pristine.
The museum is a window into the early 20th century and life on Fogo for a family of 11. The house has many interesting artifacts, including the original linoleum from 1910.
Photo: historicplaces.ca
Venture up to the Marconi Interpretation Station in Fogo to explore the Lion’s Den Hiking Trail.
This is considered a moderate – difficult hike. This loop trail is 4.2 km long and weaves through 4 resettled communities. Wild red foxes of all colours tend to frolic along the hills throughout the day. Set aside extra time to take photos and enjoy fresh Atlantic air as you approach the ocean.
During berry season, sweet blueberries are plentiful. There are also lots of pitcher plants in the bogs, an explosion of colours coming together.
There are also a few little extra paths that hikers can take to various lookout points. Highly recommend it for hikers!
Photo: alltrails.com
The trail is located alongside the North Atlantic Coastline. Pass by local gardens, the unique Long Art Studio and various bird-watching blinds.
The trail is a 4.6km round trip and starts at Etheridge’s Point Park, which includes a playground and ball field. Proper footwear is recommended. Before you stroll, drop down to the water to see the witch’s footprint and gain some local folklore.
This trail is primarily flat with a few inclines on a few boardwalks but mostly paths, rocks, stones, and boulders. At the end of the trail, a Great Auk statue commemorates the now extinct Great Auk bird species (an extinct flightless bird resembling a penguin).
This trail takes about 2 hours to complete with stops.
Photo: Tom McKenna, alltrails.com
Be sure don’t miss the fantastic views of Long Studio while you hike on Joe Batt’s Point Trail.
The Shorefast Foundation and the Fogo Island Arts Corporation has commissioned Todd Saunders to design a series of six artists’ studios on various Fogo Island locations. The organization is committed to preserving the Islanders’ traditions and aims at rejuvenating the island through the arts and culture.
The solitary, off-the-grid Long Studio, located near Joe Batt’s Arm community, hovers on stilts that lift the structure above the ground to frame a view of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Photo by Erik Mclean
Perched high on the hill above the community of Fogo, this centre offers great views of the community and allows us to learn about the early communications history of Fogo Island.
Built in 1911 at the instigation of the Newfoundland government, the Marconi wireless station on Fogo Island was for many years the only one along the hundreds of kilometres of Newfoundland coast between Cape Race and Belle Isle. It operated for 22 years and connected to an overland telegraph line, providing an invaluable communications link to local and passing mariners and those bound to and from the Labrador fishery. It was also the main link to the Battle Harbour wireless station – the people of the Labrador Straits were linked to the North American “land line” telegraph network.
Today, the Marconi wireless station site is on a sightseeing path to the abandoned village of Lion’s Den. Through interpretive panels, it tells the story of the ebb and flow of communities and cultures and the important role wireless technology played in keeping those in the fishery safe, prosperous and touch.
Photo: townoffogoisland.ca
The Experience Fogo Site allows visitors to view collections of old tools and see how residents grew their vegetables, raised their livestock, mended their nets, and dried their fish.
The site includes some elements – a carpenter’s shop, stable, traditional garden, stage and flakes – which would have been familiar in outport Newfoundland around a century ago.
The site describes how European fishermen settled the community of Fogo in the 1720s. Over the next 300 years, the fishing industry continued to be a thriving aspect of the community.
Photo: museumsnl.ca
The Old Schoolhouse is an excellent example of a nineteenth-century school building in Newfoundland. This is a rectangular, single-storey former school building with symmetrically placed wooden windows along the sides, a steeply pitched gable roof, and a front gable-end entry porch with wooden doors.
The building currently functions as a museum. The municipal heritage designation is confined to the footprint of the building.
Photo: museumsnl.ca
Fogo Island Inn sits on an island, off an island, at one of the four corners of the Earth. Every one of our 29 one-of-a-kind guest rooms and suites has dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows that open onto the wildest and most powerful ocean on the planet.
Photo: Timothy Neesam, flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0
