Kennington Cove Beaches

Photo #1 looks to the east at the two beaches along Kennington Cove and at some of Kennington Cove itself: the westernmost beach in the foreground, Beach Number Two, and the easternmost one well down the shore beyond the sand cliffs and the rocks, Beach Number One. A stair leads down to each of these beaches from the parking lots which are found inland above each one. You will note a light-coloured speck at the far right of the photo which marks the position of the cairn and of Wolfe’s Landing. To the right of this view and out of its scope, the beach on the near shore again turns to rocky shore as it sweeps around in a grand arc to end at MacLeans Point, from which the first two main photos of this essay were taken. Photo #2, taken after the clouds had vanquished the sun, shows MacLeans Point and the western part of Kennington Cove as seen from above Beach Number One; you can see the grassy lawn on which the picnic area adjacent to Beach Number Two sits. There is also a grassy picnic area on the cliffs where I was standing above Beach Number One.

In October, both beaches were deserted and I certainly had no interest in going swimming there: while the air was reasonably warm, the water was not. But the two beaches here are, I am told, very popular with locals in the summer months. My informant, a lady who had lived in Louisbourg for many years, also told me that the sands of these beaches tend to disappear in the winter time and return again in the spring; that may explain why a number of rocks are visible in the sand in the foreground. After I had taken this photo, two other couples arrived and went walking along the beaches and the shore; they were the only people I saw while I was here: clearly, in October, this is often a fairly deserted place.

The French defenders in 1758 were spread out all along this shore from the easternmost end of Beach Number One up to the picnic area adjacent to Beach Number Two; the commanding heights in the centre made any beach landing subject to direct fire and the British losses were accordingly high…until Wolfe found the sheltered cove to the east of Beach Number One.