The eastern shore of Lowland Cove

Photo #1 follows the coast in its gentle turn around the cove in this view, which overlaps with the last photo on the previous page. The meadow seen here appears bone dry (2012 was an unusually dry summer for Cape Breton, leaving streams that normally have good flow with very little water in them), but I recall from both hikes that the narrow rills draining the hills behind were minor obstacles I had to navigate around or jump across in order to keep my feet dry.

When taking photo #2 and those that follow, I changed, perhaps inadvertently, the lens setting from the telephoto setting used for photo #1 and for the photos on the previous page to a half-way setting between wide-angle and telephoto; you should therefore be aware that objects here are smaller than they would have appeared had a telephoto setting been used, but give a better idea of distance. There is also a very small gap in the coverage of the shore between the right of photo #1 and the left of photo #2.

Photo #2 moves right a bit further along along the coastal area at Lowland Cove, bringing two of the mounds that are found along this part of the shore into view. I am sure there is a perfectly good geological reason for these “mounds”, which appear to be rocky ribs coated with a goodly amount of sand/dirt/gravel. I assume, when the area about was inhabited, that the beach between the two mounds was a boat landing site—it seems to be the spot in the cove with the lowest cliffs and the easiest access to the water; without a winch, however, it would have been a real struggle to get a boat of any weight up off the beach and out of the way of waves driven off the Gulf by a high wind.

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Photo #3 looks further right and brings the largest and tallest of the “mounds” into view at the right. Covered with grass like the rest of the coastal plain, its bare rocky fingers jut out into the cove. The beach left of centre appears to be the mouth of a rill coming down from the slopes above; even though the banks above the beach look relatively low, they are well over the height of a person.

Photo #4 looks yet further right and shows the tall mound declining from its height (more than 20 m (66 ft) according to the topographical map) left of centre to a lower elevation perhaps half that at the head of the cove.

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Photo #5 continues the view to the right to the head of Lowland Cove. The rock cliffs at the far right of this view turn to the west to form the south side of Lowland Cove; as will soon be seen, that side of the cove is formed of a mountain with generally sheer cliffs which descends to the water at Lowland Point, marking the southern end of the cove.

Photo #6 looks squarely at the head of Lowland Cove. The mouth of Lowland Brook lies between the coastal plain at the far left and the rocky finger extending out into the cove right of centre. The beach below the cliff at the far right is effectively inaccessible except by water.