Pollett's Cove is a

cove A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are o ...

on the northwest coast of

Cape Breton Island Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18. ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. It is accessible only by boat or on foot via a 10 km hike along the coastline from Pleasant Bay. It has a 1000-metre, sandy beach at the base of a valley formed by the confluence of Pollett's Cove Brook and another smaller stream. After joining about 1,000 metres above the beach, the streams flow down through a grassy meadow to the

Gulf of St. Lawrence The Gulf of St. Lawrence () is the outlet of the North American Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. The gulf is a semi-enclosed sea, covering an area of about and containing about of water, at an average depth of . ...

History

Pollett's Cove was first inhabited by the Mi'kmaq. During the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

, Ensign S.W. Prenties of the

84th Regiment of Foot The 84th (York and Lancaster) Regiment of Foot was a regiment in the British Army, raised in 1793. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 65th (2nd Yorkshire, North Riding) Regiment of Foot to form the York and Lancaster Regiment, wit ...

wrote the first recorded description of the village. This account is included in Prenties' book about being shipwrecked off the coast of Cape Breton and being saved by Mi'kmaq (1780). The community was first settled by Europeans in 1838. The first European settler to arrive at Pollett's Cove was Donald McLean and his three sons. They were from Scotland and spoke Gaelic. Around 1861, upon returning from Bay St. Lawrence, two of McLean's sons drowned a few hundred yards from the Cove leaving behind their wives and children. (One of these sons was Duncan who was issued the first land grant in the Cove in 1861). By 1887, there were six families living in the Cove and 9 years later two more families joined the community. These eight families lived in seven houses (1901).Nigel Manley. Pollett's Cove, Cape Breton. 1993. There was a post office in the Cove for twenty years (1896-1916) as well as a school and "lobster factory". (There are at least two burial grounds from this period that have preserved gravestone markers.) The 1921 census indicates there was one family in the cove. Another family lived in the Cove for a few years in the 1930s after which the community was likely abandoned. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Pollett's Cove was connected by a telegraph wire to the rest of Nova Scotia, to warn of German U-boats entering the Gulf of St.Lawrence. In 1947, wildfires burned the abandoned buildings in Pollett's Cove.

Preservation

The cove is surrounded by the

Cape Breton Highlands The Cape Breton Highlands (french: Plateau du Cap-Breton, gd, Àrd-thalamh Cheap Bhreatainn), commonly called the Highlands, refer to a highland or mountainous plateau across the northern part of Cape Breton Island in the Canadian province of N ...

. The surrounding land is owned by the province, and has protected wilderness status. In August, 2007, the owners of the main parcel of private land put it up for sale, after failing to conclude negotiations for its purchase by the province. Pollett's Cove is now privately owned by a citizen of nearby Red River.

Gallery

Pollett's Cove by Clara Dennis, Nova Scotia Archives, Canada.png, Pollett's Cove by Clara Dennis (c. 1935), Nova Scotia Archives, Canada Postmark for Pollett's Cove, Nova Scotia.jpg, Postmark for Pollett's Cove Wild Horses, Pollett's Cove, Nova Scotia.jpg, Horses, Pollett's Cove

References

{{Coord, 46.918, N, 60.689, W, display=title, region:CA, Landforms of Inverness County, Nova Scotia Bodies of water of Nova Scotia Estuaries of Canada Coves of Canada