Great Brehat is a local service district and

designated place A designated place (DPL) is a type of community or settlement identified by Statistics Canada that does not meet the criteria used to define municipalities or population centres. DPLs are delineated every 5 years for the Canadian census as the ...

in the Canadian province of

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic Canada, Atlantic region. The province comprises t ...

. It is on the

Great Northern Peninsula The Great Northern Peninsula ( Inuttitut: ''Ikkarumiklua'') is the largest and longest peninsula of Newfoundland, Canada, approximately 270 km long and 90 km wide at its widest point and encompassing an area of 17,483 km2. It is def ...

of the island of Newfoundland, 10 km north of St. Anthony. As fishing has declined, the village has become a tourist attraction.

History

The original settled indigenous peoples were of the

Dorset culture The Dorset was a Paleo-Eskimo culture, lasting from to between and , that followed the Pre-Dorset and preceded the Thule people (proto-Inuit) in the North American Arctic. The culture and people are named after Cape Dorset (now Kinngait) in ...

, and the area was visited by the Vikings, as their settlement at

L'Anse aux Meadows L'Anse aux Meadows ( lit. Meadows Cove) is an archaeological site, first excavated in the 1960s, of a Norse settlement dating to approximately 1,000 years ago. The site is located on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the ...

was only 46 km away. By the sixteenth century the area was occupied by the

Beothuk The Beothuk ( or ; also spelled Beothuck) were a group of indigenous people who lived on the island of Newfoundland. Beginning around AD 1500, the Beothuk culture formed. This appeared to be the most recent cultural manifestation of peoples w ...

. When the French settled the northern peninsula ("The French Shore") of Newfoundland they established several fishing stations including Great Brehat. The people were from

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

and named their village after an island off the Brittany coast. The exact date of the French settlement is not known. In 1713, with the

Treaty of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vacant throne ...

, the French ceded the peninsula to Great Britain. Until the decline of the fishery in the 20th century, the primary catch was

cod Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...

for export. At the beginning of the 20th century, a co-operative store was opened in the village with the assistance of the medical missionary Sir

Wilfred Grenfell Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell (28 February 1865 – 9 October 1940) was a British medical missionary to Newfoundland, who wrote books on his work and other topics. Early life and education He was born at Parkgate, Cheshire, England, on 28 Febr ...

. The first road linking the coastal communities of the area was completed in 1971, with Great Brehat being the northern terminus.

Geography

Great Brehat is in Newfoundland within Subdivision D of Division No. 9. Great Brehat is located on a small bay, Great Brehat Bay, on the eastern side of the Great Northern Peninsula. Flat Point Lookout is located at the northern end of the bay. Brehat Point forms the southern boundary of the bay. The black shales in the area may yield precious metals.

Demographics

As a designated place in the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, Great Brehat recorded a population of 78. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Government

Great Brehat is a local service district (LSD) that is governed by a committee responsible for the provision of certain services to the community. The chair of the LSD committee is Ryan Cull.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Brehat Designated places in Newfoundland and Labrador Local service districts in Newfoundland and Labrador

History

Geography

Demographics

Government

See also

References