Broad Cove from the Cape Mabou Road

From Mason Point, I continued on to the Cèilidh Trail in Strathlorne, turned left and drove to the North Highlands Road, onto which I turned right. At the Y, I took the right fork, Foot Cape Road, and drove up Cape Mabou to Broad Cove Banks. After a short excursion out the Broad Cove Banks Road to the cairn, I returned and turned onto the Cape Mabou Road, which I drove to the summit and turned around and slowly came back down, stopping multiple times for photos of the fine views available on the descent. This page presents some of the photos I took on the way down. Unfortunately, significant amounts of haze were in the air, enough to spoil the photos of Margaree Island I took, but the shots of Broad Cove and Inverness turned out somewhat better, particularly the inland views where the haze was significantly less.

Photos #1, #2, #3, and #4 from a connected panorama of the views to the northeast from the side of Cape Mabou, next to the fairly new tower erected there.

Photo #1 looks northeast along the Gulf of St Lawrence coast; the Cape Breton Highlands are seen across the entire photo in the far distance, obscured, alas, by the haze. Still, the distinctive 45° slope of Squirrel Mountain behind Grand-Étang can be seen descending right of centre and the houses at Cap-le-Moine at the left and at Belle-Côte left of centre can be made out, the former barely in this compressed version and the latter quite easily. The cliffs of MacKays Cape are the long rectangular shape shining in the sun left of centre; Chimney Corner is the much larger headland this side of MacKays Cape; Marsh Point is the sun-brightened rhombic cliff face at the far left; and Smiths Point is the closest point in the foreground. Broad Cove (the water) is in the foreground. The course of the Broad Cove Marsh Road can be seen snaking part way up around Beatons Mountain across the right of the photo; it offers a lovely drive above the waters of Broad Cove and past the lower lying area of Broad Cove Marsh, on the far side and partially obscured by Smiths Point. What a glorious scene this is on a clear day, reaching all the way to Chéticamp Island!

Photo #2 looks at the bight formed by Broad Cove; here, the utility poles clearly mark the course of the Broad Cove Marsh Road. Just below the house seen right of centre is a look-off, with fine views to the south that always repay a stop there. The Cape Breton Highlands are again in the far distance; the next nearer mountains are between the Shore Road (Highway 219) and Highway 19 in the St Rose area (the Cabot Trail from Margaree Forks to Belle-Côte lies on their far side; Beatons Mountain is the lower mountain in the middle ground and the long sloping ridge leading up to the far right is a ridge of Gillis Mountain, celebrated in a Rankin Family song with that name. In the foreground, the greensward with the paths is the Cabot Links Golf Course. Just beyond beside the beach are the housekeeping cottages of MacLeods Inverness Beach Village. A second golf course is currently in the process of being constructed along the cliffs beyond the Beach Village.

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Photo #3 continues the panorama, looking inland from the coast at Broad Cove. The buildings in the foreground are in Inverness village. Gillis Mountain here runs across the entire photo, with the mountains to the north in the Dunvegan area behind. The Cape Breton Highlands again are at the horizon. The brown area at the left of the photo is the site of the golf course under construction; signs of construction activity can be seen at various points across much of this photo.

Photo #4, the concluding view of this panorama, looks yet further inland. The long yellow building in the foreground is the Inverness County Centre for the Arts on the northern edge of Inverness village. The field in the upper right is on Gillis Mountain, perhaps where the Rankins picked their berries (I’ve never been up there and so don’t know whether there are berries there or not). The Cape Breton Highlands certainly merit their name; none of the intervening mountains or ridges are tall enough to hide them. It is the fine views seen in this panorama that bring me here each fall the day of the St Matthews concert. Alas, this year, the fall colours were pretty subdued, even granting the early point in the festival.

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Photo #5 looks almost directly below at the beautiful Inverness Beach and the Cabot Links Golf Course inland behind it; the gouges in the bottom centre and right are sand traps. I can make out four golfers and one beachgoer with his dog (widely separated). Broad Cove Banks sits on a cliff above Inverness Harbour, which hides it from view from this vantage point on Cape Mabou, so only the northern portion of the long beach is visible from there.

Photo #6 was taken in the field by the cairn on the Broad Cove Banks (Sight Point) Road on the outskirts of Broad Cove Banks. A friend identified these white flowers as “pearly everlasting” ( Anaphalis margaritacea ). They make, together with the surrounding grasses in various fall colours, a very pretty photographic bouquet.