View from Marble Hill

View from Marble Hill
Photo 21 of 25: View from Marble Hill
Taken 2005 July 3 in Marble Hill from the Marble Hill Road at the top of the hill
GPS 46°02.26?'N 61°32.59?'W

This gorgeous view from the summit of Marble Hill shows off the east coast of St. Georges Bay. In the far distance, Creignish Mountain appears at the middle left and the Nova Scotia mainland at the middle and right; the Strait of Canso lies beyond Creignish Mountain just left of center. I do not know the name of the point in the middle distance, but would guess it to be Seonalds Point near Little Judique Harbour. The Cèilidh Trail (Highway 19)¹ can be seen at the left edge of Port Hood Beach, which runs a considerable distance out to Shipping Point across much of the width of this photo, and then for about the same distance along the coast to the south.

Closer to Marble Hill, parallel to the beach, the construction which one sees jutting into the water is a pier where boats are moored, though the main marina now seems to be at the end of Murphys Pond Road further north. Still closer one can also see the remains of a now mostly submerged breakwater that once ran across to Port Hood Island and which, according to an interpretive panel in the Port Hood Day Park, was originally constructed to protect coal-bearing ships from storms. Not showing in this photo are additional beaches along the Port Hood shore above the pier and along the Murphys Pond Road, which lies to the right outside the view of this picture.

Marble Hill is reached by leaving the Cèilidh Trail at the flashing traffic light and driving through the village of Port Hood and continuing past the churches and on straight through the junction with the Colindale Road; at the top of the hill, you will see the view photographed here. The road dead ends shortly thereafter.


¹ For some strange reason, nearly every road map of Cape Breton, including the map accompanying the provincial Doers & Dreamers Guide, shows Highway 19 passing well inland of the coast at Port Hood; the map recommended in the introduction to this essay and The Nova Scotia Atlas have it right, showing it, as does this photo, passing directly adjacent to the shore before turning inland towards Mabou.