The nation of Canada was created by the British North America Act in 1867 with Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia as the four original provinces. Nova Scotia is the province at the extreme southeastern corner of Canada. The southern and eastern parts of the province lie on a peninsula facing the Atlantic to the east and the Bay of Fundy to the west. To the north the peninsula is joined to the rest of Canada by an isthmus that separates the Bay of Fundy on the south from Northumberland Strait and the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the north. Cape Breton Island lies to the northeast, separated from the main part of the province by the narrow Strait of Canso. In the 17th century Nova Scotia was called Acadia as a part of New France, the French empire in North America. Britain conquered Acadia in 1710 during Queen Anne's War and established the Nova Scotia colony in the peninsula. Cape Breton Island continued as a French colony until it was also conquered by Britain in 1758 during the Seven Years War (1756-63). Nova Scotia is divided into 18 counties; 12 are now governed as county-level municipalities and the remaining six are divided into district municipalities. This page includes lighthouses of the Northumberland Strait coast in the county-level municipalities of Cumberland, Pictou, and Antigonish. (Cumberland spans the isthmus and has lighthouses on both coasts. Cumberland County lighthouses on the Bay of Fundy and Minas Basin are listed on the Western Nova Scotia page.) Rip Irwin's book, Lighthouses and Lights of Nova Scotia (Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2011) is an essential reference for understanding these lighthouses. Aids to navigation in Canada are maintained by the Canadian Coast Guard. In 2008 Parliament passed the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act to designate and protect historic lighthouses. CCG numbers are from the Atlantic Coast volume of the List of Lights, Buoys, and Fog Signals of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from Volume H of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA numbers are from Publication 110.
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![]() Fishing Point Light (now lost), Pugwash, August 2011 Wikimedia Creative Commons photo by Dennis Jarvis |
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![]() Pictou Harbour Range Front Light, Pictou Harbour, June 2008 photo copyright Charles Bash; used by permission |
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![]() Pictou Lighthouse Museum, Pictou, April 2009 ex-Flickr Creative Commons photo by Anna Webber |
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![]() Havre Boucher Range Rear Light, Havre Boucher, August 2012 Wikimedia Creative Commons photo by Dennis Jarvis |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Eastern Prince Edward Island | East: Cape Breton Island | South: Western Nova Scotia | West: Northern New Brunswick
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted December 18, 2002. Checked and revised March 24, 2024. Lighthouses: 18. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.