Lingan (2021 population: 229) is a Canadian
suburban
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
community in
Nova Scotia's
Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
Lingan is located on the shore of the
Cabot Strait, northeast from
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, east of
New Waterford and northwest of
Glace Bay.
The community occupies a headland which forms the north side of Lingan Bay, to the south, and forms the western shore of Indian Bay, to the east.
Lingan was an active
coal mining
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
area from the early 19th century until 1999 when the last
coal mines in the community operated by the
Cape Breton Development Corporation, or DEVCO, were closed. The most recent mines in Lingan operated by DEVCO included the Lingan Colliery and the adjacent Phalen Colliery. They were served by the
Devco Railway
The Devco Railway was a Canadian railway. Devco Railway operated as an unincorporated department within the Coal Division of the Cape Breton Development Corporation, also known as DEVCO; as such there is no formally incorporated entity named " ...
, formerly the
Sydney & Louisburg Railway
The Sydney and Louisburg Railway (S&L) was a Canadian railway. Built to transport coal from various mines to the ports of Sydney and Louisbourg, the S&L operated in the eastern part of Cape Breton County, Nova Scotia. The railway uses a slightly ...
.
In the late 1970s, the
Nova Scotia Power Corporation constructed the
Lingan Generating Station to generate electricity from coal. This plant is still in operation and currently uses coal imported from the
United States and
South America which is shipped to Sydney and hauled by the
Sydney Coal Railway.
Lingan has a long history of Irish heritage with some of the most prominent names being Burke, Handrigan, Hall, Hanrahan/ Handrahan, Kelly, Laffin, Miller, and Rockett many of these families have roots going back 7 generations and they continue to live in the community.
During the mid-first decade of the 21st century nine large
wind turbines were erected in Lingan along the cliffs on the Northern Head. During World War2 the US army had an observation post here to be on the outlook for German U-boats who were confirmed to have been in the immediate vicinity stalking merchant marine convoys out of Sydney Harbour.
Demographics
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
Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...
, Lingan had a population of 229 living in 101 of its 106 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 261. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
See also
*
List of communities in Nova Scotia
References
Lingan on Destination Nova Scotia
{{Coord, 46, 14, 1.7, N, 60, 2, 38.3, W, display=title
Communities in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality
Designated places in Nova Scotia
Mining communities in Nova Scotia
General Service Areas in Nova Scotia