Views of Cape Mabou from the MacLellan Road

After the last stop on the MacKinnon Road, I drove to its end on the Whycocomagh Road and turned toward Dunakin; the boundary between Glencoe Mills and Dunakin was, as of this fall, marked with highway signs and lies just east of the MacKinnon Road’s end. About 1.2 km (¾ mi) east of the MacKinnon Road, one arrives at the first road to the left (at GPS 45°58.218'N 61°15.500'W), unnamed so far as I can ascertain, which leads to a gravel pit and the foundations of a former house known as Angus the Piper’s; only 45 m/yds down this road, at GPS 45°58.242'N 61°15.501'W, one reaches the southeastern end of the MacLellan Road. This road runs along a high ridge with three vantage points offering excellent views to the west and north; I stopped at all three, but the lighting at the first two didn’t result in photos of sufficient quality to use here. At the third, however, the sun was out in pretty good form, resulting in the four photos on this page, which form a connected panorama of the beautiful area between the MacLellan Road and Cape Mabou.

Photo #1 is the leftmost (westernmost) portion of the view at the third vantage point. The greenish ridge in the middle ground is what I have dubbed the “Miramichi Ridge”, on the far side of which the Old Mull River Road (also known as the Brook Village Road) runs to the northeast towards Miramichi and Brook Village. The heather coloured ridge further back is the Southwest Ridge (also known as the Mabou Ridge). Beyond it in the distance and higher than anything else is the southern edge of Cape Mabou which rises above the Mabou River in Northeast Mabou; the large green barn on the Mabou Harbour Road sits below this peak. The southeastern edge of Cape Mabou continues across the right of the photo.

Photo #2 pans a bit further to the right, bringing more of the Southwest Ridge and Cape Mabou into view; Mabou Mountain is now also visible here at the far right. The buildings about a third of the way in from the right edge are along the Mull River Road at the base of the eastern edge of the Southwest Ridge.

[continued below]

Photo #3 pans still further rightward. with Mabou Mountain running across much of the photo and more of the eastern edge of Cape Mabou visible in the far distance. Given the unfortunate lighting, it’s not possible to make out the path of the Cèilidh Trail (Highway 19) in this photo as it ascends the side of Mabou Mountain to Hawleys Hill; the houses in the shade left of centre are in Glendyer, where a bit of Highway 252 can be seen in the original (it’s hardly visible in this compressed version).

Photo #4 is the rightmost (easternmost) portion of the view at this vantage point. Mabou Mountain is now at the left of the photo and Northeast Mabou lies in the valley behind it below Cape Mabou. The view of Cape Mabou continues to the right beyond Glenora Falls: the “knob” mountain about two fifths of the way in from the right can be barely made out in this lighting; it is located near the Glenora Falls Road that ascends to the top of Cape Mabou.

Beautiful as this panorama is any time of the year, it is interesting as well for what it shows of the state of the fall colours on this Thursday of Celtic Colours week. The foliage in the foregrounds of these photos has changed and there are bright reds to be seen there (darkened here by the capricious lighting), but the overall assessment has to be that these are still clearly early days yet. Moreover, the hillsides of Cape Mabou are still very definitely green-hued, although no longer monolithically green, as some evidence of early colour changes can be made out.

In my experience, it is very unusual to meet anyone along this narrow road with the gorgeous views, since the road does not seem to be very well known, but this afternoon I did meet a van coming up from the Rosedale Road at the southernmost of the vantage points; we each managed to get far enough off the road to allow the other to pass by, but there wasn’t a lot of room to spare! Our brief conversation through opened windows revealed that, like me, he often travelled the road for its fine views and, in the fall, for its colours. I can certainly recommend it on a fine day: the views of Upper Glencoe and Glencoe Mills from the two earlier vantage points and these glorious views of the area to Cape Mabou from the third make it well worth your while.