Battle Harbor

We took a day trip today to Battle Harbor. First established in the 1770's to fish the abundant cod in the area, this small settlement became the fishing capital of Labrador and Newfoundland. However, with the decline of the fisheries and after a major fire in 1930, it was permanently abandoned in the 1960's ass part of a major government resettling project.

The site was given to the Battle Harbor Historic Trust, which now runs the island as a historic preserve. You can overnight in some of the homes here, which transport you back in time to another era. Some of the original buildings were preserved and others have been refurbished or rebuilt. There's an excellent tour by a man who was born on the island and he walks you through how the village operated during the fishing boom.

For us, it was simply beautiful. The setting is idyllic and we had incredible, though very windy, weather to walk the 2km trail around the island. Cloudberries were abundant, there's wreckage from an aircraft crash in 1976, and we even saw an iceberg just offshore.

I'm working on some video footage that I'll add when I'm able to download and edit it.Read more