Description of Historic Place

The Cape Tryon Lighthouse is a square tapered tower clad in wood shingles, located on red cliffs of Cape Tryon on the north shore of Prince Edward Island overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Heritage Value

The Cape Tryon Lighthouse is valued for its associations with the marine and navigational history of the area, for its contributions to the landscape and its importance to its community as a visual landmark.

The Cape Tryon Lighthouse was constructed in 1964-1965 to a Department of Transport design.
It is possible that a light was established at or near this site since 1865. Records indicate the first lighthouse structure built at the site was in 1905 by builder B.D. Huntley of Vernon River Bridge. That lighthouse was a rectangular wooden building, with an octagonal red iron lantern mounted on the north end of a gambrel rood. After it was decommissioned in 1962, the lighthouse was moved to Cape Road, left empty, then moved to Sea View in 1964. Around 1990, it was relocated to Park Corner and has been retrofitted for use as a summer cottage. The current structure replaced the 1905 lighthouse when it was decommissioned.

While the structure is not associated with L.M. Montgomery, she was certainly very connected to this area of Prince Edward Island which figured largely in her many novels. It is thought that the original lighthouse is the inspiration for the Four Winds Light in Anne=s House of Dreams. Ownership of the lighthouse has been transferred to the L.M. Montgomery Land Trust, a charitable non-profit organization working to preserve the scenic agricultural coastal lands on PEI=s north shore.

While the Cape Tryon Lighthouse is not open to visitors, it continues to be an important, and popular, visual and cultural landmark in its community.

Source : Heritage Places files, Department of Education, Early Learning & Culture, Charlottetown, PEI, C1A 7N8
File # : 4310-20/C17