The Cape Shore is a region on the southwestern portion of the Avalon Peninsula on the
island of Newfoundland
Newfoundland (, ; french: link=no, Terre-Neuve, ; ) is a large island off the east coast of the North American mainland and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It has 29 percent of the province's land ...
, Canada.
Often confused or conflated with the
Southern Shore
Southern may refer to:
Businesses
* China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China
* Southern Airways, defunct US airline
* Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US
* Southern Airways Express ...
(a rural district with strong Irish-Newfoundland heritage stretching south from St. John's to
Trepassey
Trepassey () is a small fishing community located in Trepassey Bay on the south eastern corner of the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador. It was in Trepassey Harbour where the flight of the ''Friendship'' took off, with Amelia Earhart ...
), the Cape Shore is similarly rural and populated by Irish Newfoundlanders, but is geographically distinct. It is named for
Cape St. Mary's
The headland of Cape St. Mary's is located at the southern tip of the south-western arm of the Avalon Peninsula of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Cape St. Mary's is probably one of the most we ...
, the southeastern tip of
Placentia Bay
Placentia Bay (french: Baie de Plaisance) is a body of water on the southeast coast of Newfoundland, Canada. It is formed by Burin Peninsula on the west and Avalon Peninsula on the east. Fishing grounds in the bay were used by native people long ...
, celebrated in the famous Newfoundland
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
Branch
A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term '' twig'' usually ...
(because Branch and Point Lance are approximately 40 km away from the next St. Mary's Bay community, North Harbour, but only 16 km from the largest Cape Shore community, St. Bride's, they are included in the Cape Shore despite technically being in a different bay).
History
Although nearby to Placentia, French capital of Newfoundland until 1713 and important English town afterwards, the Cape Shore was largely uninhabited until the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when the Placentia merchants Saunders and Sweetman began bringing settlers there from the area around
Waterford
"Waterford remains the untaken city"
, mapsize = 220px
, pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe
, pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe
, pushpin_relief = 1
, coordinates ...
, Ireland. The river valleys of the Cape Shore are relatively fertile areas suitable for types of small-scale farming, a rarity in Newfoundland, and communities like St. Bride's and Angels Cove were originally settled as farming communities, not fishing communities like most settlements in Newfoundland. To this day, commercial sheep, dairy, and vegetable farms are in operation on the Cape Shor
However, the Cape Shore is adjacent to what were some of the richest fishing grounds in the world, as exhibited in the old Newfoundland saying ''Cape St. Mary's pays for all'' (meaning, losses incurred during a poor fishing year could be recouped by a quick fishing trip to Cape St. Mary's). By the latter part of the 19th century, fishing was the main occupation, and continues to be important today, despite the
fishing industry
The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including ...
's woes in the last 15 years (including the devastating
Atlantic cod
The Atlantic cod (''Gadus morhua'') is a benthopelagic fish of the family Gadidae, widely consumed by humans. It is also commercially known as cod or codling.
Today, tourism is an important industry. The Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve, just south of St. Bride's, draws thousands of visitors every year. Its rolling green hyper-oceanicbarrens and meadows drop down dramatic sea-cliffs to the pounding surf below. The bird colony on 'bird rock' is the reserve's largest draw, however.
During the breeding season, it is home to 24,000 Northern gannet, 20,000 black-legged kittiwake, 20,000 common murre, and 2,000 thick-billed murre. In addition, more than 100 pairs of razorbill, more than 60 pairs of black guillemot, plus double-crested and great cormorant, and Northern fulmar nest ther
All of these birds nest on or around a high stack of rock, mere metres from the shore. A pleasant 15 minute walk along the coast from the Interpretation Centre's parking lot brings visitors to the observation point, a mere 10 metres from as many as 60,000 nesting birds. It is one of North America's largest seabird colonies, but it is without doubt the very most accessibl
Newfoundland English
Newfoundland English is a term referring to any of several accents and dialects of Atlantic Canadian English found in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbr ...
word meaning
barachois
A barachois is a term used in Atlantic Canada, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Réunion and Mauritius Island to describe a coastal lagoon partially or totally separated from the ocean by a sand or shingle bar. Sometimes the bar is constructed of bou ...
Rex Murphy
Rex Murphy (born March 1947) is a Canadian commentator and author, primarily on Canadian political and social matters. He was the regular host of CBC Radio One's '' Cross Country Checkup'', a nationwide call-in show, for 21 years before stepping ...
, originally from the Placentia area, in his book ''Points of View'')
* Patrick's Cove
* Angels Cove
* Cuslett (home to the Tramore Theatre, an innovative cultural institution that celebrates and preserves the endangered culture of the Cape Shore)
* St. Bride's (the administrative centre for the Cape Shore, home to several business and a K-12 school, Fatima Academy)
* Point Lance (home to a pure white sand beach approximately long)
*
Branch, Newfoundland and Labrador
The Town of Branch is an incorporated community on the Cape Shore of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada and had a population of 177 (as of the 2021 census).
Geography
It is located on St. Mary's Bay and can be accessed via Route 100 or Route 9 ...
Population
According to the 2006 census, Division 1 Subdivision C includes the unincorporated communities from Big Barasway/ Great Barasway south to Cuslett. Its population was 185 in 200
St. Bride's had a population of 386 in 200 Point Lance had 11 and Branch had 30
Thus, it is possible to estimate the population of the Cape Shore as 999 people in 2006. This is an 11% decline from 2001, when the sum of these 3 towns and one census subdivision was 1,117.