Head Harbour (East Quoddy) Lighthouse

East Quoddy Head Light Station Facts & Figures

• Station Established: 1829
• First Lit: 1830
• Construction: Material - Wood  |  Shape - Tapered Octagonal Tower
• Markings: White with Red Cross of St. George
• Fog Signal: Horn (Class-C Diaphone)
• Height: Tower - 51 Feet  |  Focal Plane - 59 Feet
• Range:  13 Nautical Miles (15 Miles)
• Optics: Current - Third-Order Fresnel Lens (1887)
• Characteristic: Fixed Red
• Other Existing Buildings: 1840 Keepers House, 1914 Fog Alarm Building, 1914 Work Shed, 1947 Boathouse
• Current Ownership, Maintenance & Preservation: In 2006, the Head Harbour Light Station was transferred to the Friends of The Head Harbour Lightstation

Visitor & Tour Information: The lighthouse is located in Canada, so you must have a valid passport (or passcard for U.S. visitors) issued by your home country in order to visit and return. During the summer (early June to late August), the Friends of The Head Harbour Lightstation employs guides to collect a small fee for accessing the lighthouse and ensure that visitors do so only at the appropriate times. If you wish to tour the interior of the home and tower, an additional fee is required.

Head Harbour Island is accessible only by foot, so check the tidal schedule before setting out as it is accessible only 1 1/2 hours before and 1 hour after low tide! Expect dangerous and slippery conditions as visitors must traverse a rocky, wet, seaweed-covered intertidal zone, wooden bridges and steep, slippery metal ladders. If the tide leaves you stranded on the islands, please wait for rescue. Misjudging the cold, strong, fast rising tidal currents and unstable pebble ocean floor has claimed the lives of visitors as well as former lighthouse keepers!

During the season, you are likely to see whales feeding offshore and possibly hear them spouting if the pod is close enough and the wind is blowing in the right direction.

Directions: Route 1, Exit 56, onto Route 172 to Letete. Take the toll-free ferry to Deer Island (1-888-747-7006). Drive to the end of the Island and take another ferry to Campobello Island (this ferry runs during summer months only). Route 774; follow to end at East Quoddy Head, accessible by foot at low tide. From Route 1, U.S.A. at Whiting Corner, take Route 189 (Lubec, Maine) to Route 774 on Campobello Island.

Lighthouse Trivia: The original 1829 tower is the oldest surviving lighthouse in New Brunswick.