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travel / great places / canadian snapshots / cape breton
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Cape Breton Islands
Echoing through
the mixed forests and granite crags of Nova Scotia's
Cape Breton highlands, and around the bays and inlets of
coastal lowlands are the ancient sounds of Mi'kmaq Indian
and Acadian French and the joyous lilt of Gaelic prose.
The latter, more modern of the Cape Breton heritage languages,
is still taught and spoken in North America's only Gaelic
College, and Scottish culture still rings across the island
through the homespun music of Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie McMaster,
the Rankins and Rita McNeil. In summer, Broad Cove, Big
Pond, Iona and Glendale house tens of thousands of visitors
who swarm the region to hear fiddlers and watch step-dancers
present their Scottish traditions.
Location
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Ballantyne's Cove on Cape George outside Antigonish. |
Cape Breton Island is tied to Nova Scotia's mainland in the
south by theTrans-Canada Highway, which traverses a two-kilometre-long
causeway across the Strait of Canso. The highway crosses the
island and, in the north, a car ferry crosses Cabot Strait to
Channel-Port aux Basques, Nfld., where the highway continues.
Breton Cove, St. Anns, Sydney, Glace Bay and Louisbourg line
Cape Breton's jagged Atlantic coastline, while Mabou, Port Hood,
Judique and Creignish dot the western coast, along the Gulf
of St. Lawrence. Bras d'Or Lake is an almost entirely landlocked
saltwater lake which reaches into the heart of the island.
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