The Peggy’s Cove Preservation Area

Welcome to the Peggy’s Cove Preservation Area site. For a short video of this unique wonder, please click on the video icon at the end of this page.

Here is a brief look at the history of this unique and unusual area….

There are few who have not heard of the famous Peggy’s Cove Light. Ironically, on their way to see it, most pass by one of the most beautiful, one of the most mystical, most entrancing geological wonders in Canada, the Peggy’s Cove Preservation Area.

While Awesome is a word that is sometimes overworked, even that word does not aptly describe the experience one has when one is alone in the presence of these magnificent ancient boulders, scattered, as if by some giant hand, across the thousand acres of the

Peggy’s Cove Preservation Area.

For we soon sense that these old stones have something to tell us. Something about the earth. Something, perhaps, about ourselves. For there are those who think, you see, that stones have spirits. Maybe they do, maybe not. But the feeling of unexplainable awe you get in their presence is unmistakable ….

Their story begins a long time ago … about 10 thousand years, in fact, when a great ice field covered this part of Canada.

It was a huge icefield, stretching for thousands of miles, and it plowed across the land like a giant bulldozer, scraping away everything in its path, picking up boulders that weighed thousands of tons and peeling away all traces of life in its path.

And so for thousands of years, there were here no birds, no plants, no sounds, save for the cracking and grinding of ice, the howling winds and the lonely bark of the occasional sea animal that wandered close to the crashing breakers of our frozen, rocky shore.

 And then, strangely, slowly, the    great glacier began to melt, and as it did, it left huge boulders, scattered randomly across the land, some weighing many tons … many held up in strange ways by the small stones upon which they landed.

And then … with time … the miraculous began to happen as Mother Nature scattered her seeds – and tiny, primitive plants began to take hold in the cracks and crevices of the old rocks.  

 

First, it was the crusty lichens and their relatives, the tough precursors of life to come, stitching little paths and patterns onto the barren rock ….

And then, the first traces of living green appeared, as various mosses and other small plants took hold wherever they could find a crack in the rocks or a scant supply of necessary nutrients.

At length, and with time, various little ecosystems sprung up: unique and beautiful little natural gardens here and there whose purpose was and is to delight, to play their part in the unfolding drama of life, changing with the seasons and bringing meaning and continuity into the lives of those who pass their way …

 

And today … today those rocks are still there, alluring, inviting, just as they have been for all those thousands of years, standing sentinel over the rocky coast and the little, private beauty spots that dot the magical land around the little village of

Peggy’s Cove.

Stunning in their majesty, mysterious in their origins, the Old Stone Sentinels of Peggy’s Cove will, with their comforting presence and quiet majesty, bid you stay awhile, and draw sustenance from the constsncy of their ancient, mystical presence.

You are welcome to come, relax, and reconnect to the wonder of the natural world.

The Peggy’s Cove Preservation Area is always open!   Always waiting!

Just as it has for millions of years….

This wonderful site on the Peggy’s Cove Preservation Area has been developed by Mr. Ron McInnis of Oceanstone Inn and Cottages of Indian Harbour. We have included this information with his permission.

 

http://www.peggyscovearea.com/daytrips/index.cfm?id=49

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