Cape Breton Island: Beautiful scenery, fiddle music, and home to Alexander Graham Bell

We’ve spent several days on our trip on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, savoring the coastal highland scenery, the fiddle music, and the history of invention and 18^th-century military rivalries.

We first arrived at our campground near Baddeck–pronounced Ba-DECK, as we soon learned–more than a week ago for a couple of nights on the way to visit Newfoundland (see my previous post). Cape Breton Island lies at the northeastern end of Nova Scotia, connected to “the Mainland” by a short causeway.

On the Saturday that we arrived, we attended the nightly ceilidh (KAY-lee) at St. Michael’s Parrish Hall in Baddeck. Ceilidh is Gaelic for a visit or gathering, usually involving fiddle music. We heard the delightful fiddling of Rachel Davis, accompanied by Buddy MacDonald on guitar. (You can see a clip of her playing here.) If you like Appalachian fiddle music, you’ll like the Cape Breton version. On our return visit to Baddeck after our Newfoundland trip, we attended another ceilidh at the same venue, this time listening to Dara Smith-MacDonald on fiddle, accompanied by Adam Young on piano. The hall seats about 80 people and was full of retirement-age folks like us on both our visits, mostly Canadians from Ontario and the West but also quite a few Americans. It costs $15 (Canadian) per head and includes a locally baked oat cookie and tea during the intermission. (Be sure to call ahead that day to reserve seats.)

The next day, we drove the 180-mile Cabot Trail along the coast of the island and through Cape Breton Highlands National Park. This is considered one of the great scenic drives in North America. The scenery was a beautiful amalgam of green mountains against a shimmering sea. A highlight of the drive was a four-mile round-trip hike on the Skyline Trail, which took us out to a viewing platform overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence on a sunny day. We also put our feet in the surprisingly warm waters of the Atlantic at Ingonish Beach. As we neared the end, we enjoyed the short and free ferry ride to Englishtown and on to Baddeck. (Here are additional photos posted on FB.)

After eight days across the Cabot Strait in Newfoundland, we returned to the campground in Baddeck for another three nights. On Wednesday we toured the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in Baddeck, learning about the life of the “gentle genius” who invented the telephone. Bell (1847-1922) grew up in Scotland but his family moved to North America after two of his brothers died of respiratory ailments. He carried on his father’s work of helping the deaf learn to speak, eventually marrying one of his students. He and his wife and family moved to Baddeck in 1886, attracted by its natural beauty. The historic site displays this quote from Bell:

“I have travelled around the globe. I have seen the Canadian and American Rockies, the Andes, the Alps and the Highlands of Scotland, but for simple beauty, Cape Breton outrivals them all.”

The exhibits gave me a fuller understanding of his work. Along with the telephone, he invented an improved phonograph, encouraged the first airplane flight in Canada in 1909, and helped build a hydrofoil that set the speed record on water in 1919. That’s quite a famous connection for this town of 800. (The other famous connection is that a forefather of Ian Vasquez of the Cato Institute lived in Baddeck and once worked for Bell.)

On Thursday we drove to the Atlantic coast side of the island to the reconstructed 18^th-century French fortress and port of Louisbourg. In 1744 Louisbourg was the main French-controlled Atlantic port in North America. It was heavily fortified and was exporting millions of pounds of cod to Catholic France each year for its Friday fish fries. But then the British besieged and took the city not once but twice, in 1745 and again in 1758, the second time burning and leveling it to the ground. Beginning in the 1960s, the Canadian government began reconstructing the central part of Louisbourg, aided by meticulous records the French government had kept of the buildings and the estates of everyone who died there. The result is this splendid recreation of a mid-18^th century French port and garrison, staffed by locals in period costumes, running a café, explaining life in the homes, and even firing muskets and cannons! The effect is quite captivating.     

On Friday we broke camp in Baddeck and towed the trailer across the province to the capital city of Halifax, where we plan to spend four nights. Here’s a map of the extent of our travels so far.