The Point Amour lighthouse was originally built in 1857 to increase safety of trans-Atlantic shipping as it passed through the Strait of Belle Isle between the southern tip of Labrador and the western shore of Newfoundland.
It is the tallest lighthouse in Atlantic Canada, and the second tallest in the entire country.
Today, the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Canada’s Environment Minister and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, today designated the iconic landmark, as a heritage lighthouse under the Canadian Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act (HLPA).
Recently the federal government has declared many lighthouses across Canada as being surplus, superceded bytechnology such as GPS guidance.
Since the HPLA came into effect in 2008, Canadians have nominated hundreds of old lighthouses to be declared as heritage lighthouses.
The government of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador has agreed to take over the lighthouse and protect it’s heritage character.
This lighthouse is associated with the most famous maritime disaster in the strait; the wreck of HMS Raleigh in 1922. The heavy cruiser which had only been commissioned in 1921, ran permanently aground at Point Amour and was eventually written off
HERITAGE LIGHTHOUSES OF CANADA
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