The Point Amour Lighthouse is located on the shore of

Forteau Bay Forteau Bay is located in the Strait of Belle Isle, off the coast of Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend fr ...

, in

Strait of Belle Isle The Strait of Belle Isle ( ; ) is a waterway in eastern Canada, that separates Labrador from the island of Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland, in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Location The strait is located in the southeast of the ...

Labrador Peninsula The Labrador Peninsula, also called Quebec-Labrador Peninsula, is a large peninsula in eastern Canada. It is bounded by Hudson Bay to the west, the Hudson Strait to the north, the Labrador Sea to the east, Strait of Belle Isle and the Gulf of ...

L'Anse Amour L'Anse Amour () (''Cove of Love''), romanticized version of ''Anse aux Morts'' (''Cove of the Dead''), is a hamlet located on the north shore of the Strait of Belle Isle, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. As of 2006, it had a population of 8. ...

hamlet, in southern

Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...

, province,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. It was completed in 1857. It is the tallest lighthouse in

Atlantic Canada Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (), is the list of regions of Canada, region of Eastern Canada comprising four provinces: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. As of 2021, the landma ...

, and the second tallest one in all of Canada, reaching a height of 109 feet (33m). The Point Amour Lighthouse was part of a series of four lighthouses built in the 1850s to allow for safer passage for the increased steamship travel between Europe and the new world at that time. The cylindrical tower is built of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and is painted white with a black band. The limestone used for construction of the lighthouse was obtained from local quarries. Other materials such as timber and brick were not as accessible and were shipped from Quebec to L’Anse au Loup. From L’Anse au Loup they were brought to the site where the lighthouse was constructed, four miles away. It was built in the series of Imperial Towers and is designated a Provincial Historic Site. The residential part of the lighthouse, completed in 1857, has been renovated and now serves as a museum. The site was also home to a

Marconi Station A list of early wireless telegraphy radio stations of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. Guglielmo Marconi developed the first practical radio transmitters and receivers between 1895 and 1901. His company, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph ...

, of which only the foundations survive. A

second order Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens which reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections. The simpler dioptric (purely refractiv ...

with a

focal plane In Gaussian optics, the cardinal points consist of three pairs of points located on the optical axis of a rotationally symmetric, focal, optical system. These are the '' focal points'', the principal points, and the nodal points; there are two ...

at above sea level is in use. In 1996 the operation of the lighthouse was converted to an automatic system. The

light characteristic A light characteristic is all of the properties that make a particular somewhat navigational light identifiable. Graphical and textual descriptions of navigational light sequences and colours are displayed on nautical charts and in Light Lists ...

is a period of light of 16 seconds with an adjacent pause of 4 seconds. A fog signal may be sounded from a separate building.

Lighthouse keepers

In the 1960s the lighthouse became automated.

References

External links

Aids to Navigation
''Canadian Coast Guard''
Point Amour Lighthouse website

{{authority control Lighthouses completed in 1857 Lighthouses in Newfoundland and Labrador Museums in Newfoundland and Labrador Lighthouse museums in Canada 1857 establishments in the British Empire Historic buildings and structures in Newfoundland and Labrador

Lighthouse keepers

See also

References

External links