Port Hastings is an unincorporated settlement on

Cape Breton Island Cape Breton Island (, formerly '; or '; ) is a rugged and irregularly shaped island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18.7% of Nova Scotia's total area. Although ...

, within the Municipality of the County of Inverness, Canada. The population in 2021 was 90. The community is located at the eastern end of the Canso Causeway on

. It is named after Charles Hastings Doyle.

History

The community was previously known as Plaster Cove. The Inverness and Richmond Railway was built from coal mines in

Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...

to a loading dock at Point Tupper in 1901.Welcome to Inverness, Nova Scotia
/ref> The construction of the Canso Causeway which opened in 1955 saw the community become a railway junction after the

Truro Truro (; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England; it is the southernmost city in the United Kingdom, just under west-south-west of Charing Cross in London. It is Cornwall's county town, s ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

mainline of

Canadian National Railways The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue an ...

(CNR) was diverted from the railcar ferry terminals at Mulgrave and Point Tupper. The CNR line to Inverness was eventually abandoned in the 1980s, although the Truro-Sydney mainline continues to operate under the

Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway The Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway is a short line railway that operates in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. CBNS operates of main line and associated spurs between Truro in the central part of the province to Point Tupper ...

. The construction of the Canso Causeway also brought what would become the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

( Highway 104 and Highway 105) through the community. A traffic circle named the Port Hastings Rotary creates an important interchange between Highway 104, Highway 105, Trunk 19 and Trunk 4 several hundred metres east of the Canso Canal Bridge. The growth of automobile-focused tourism following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

saw several motels and gas stations and a tourist information centre located at the traffic circle. The community is home to the Strait Area Museum, which documents local history, including that of the Canso Causeway.

Climate

Similar to most of Nova Scotia, Port Hastings has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

with some maritime influences, including high snowfall in winter and relatively narrow temperature fluctuations by Canadian standards.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), 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 culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Port Hastings had a population of 90 living in 45 of its 50 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 89. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Notable Persons

Linden MacIntyre Linden Joseph MacIntyre (born May 29, 1943) is a Canadian journalist, broadcaster and novelist. He has won ten Gemini Awards, an International Emmy and numerous other awards for writing and journalistic excellence, including the 2009 Scotiabank G ...

, journalist and novelist, grew up in Port Hastings. * Colin MacLeod (1909–1972), geneticist was born in Port Hastings. * Angus Walker, country musician, known as "Canada's Prime Minister of Country Music".

References

{{wikivoyage, Port Hastings Communities in Inverness County, Nova Scotia Designated places in Nova Scotia