Daily tours of the lighthouse are offered throughout the summer season.

Historic Lighthouse Guided Tours

Open June 16th – Labour Day
After Labour Day call for tours – (902) 357-2106

This lighthouse, height 19.5 meters or 64 ft., which was built in 1867, was one of the busiest aids to navigation for the deep-sea traffic, inshore and offshore fishery. The history of shipwrecks off the coast shows this area as being one of the most difficult to navigate due to the “meeting of three tides” and the “three reefs” off East Point. The Atlantic Ocean, Northumberland Strait and the Gulf of St. Lawrence are the three tides that meet at this most easterly point.

In 1882 the British warship “HMS Phoenix” was shipwrecked off East Point, due in part to the location of the lighthouse. Captain Grenfell’s charts placed the lighthouse at the very tip of East Point though it had actually been built a half-mile further down the coast. For navigators relying on the light at night, it was just enough to turn a close but safe course around the reef into a trip right onto the rocks. The Phoenix was not the first vessel to discover this, but it was the most famous. A year later, the East Point lighthouse was lifted up and dragged to where the charts said it was.

Inside East Point lighthouse the stairs wind up to the top of the white octagonal tower. The light station consists of a lighthouse, cottage, fog alarm, radio, beacon station and oil shed. In 1908, an addition was built to the fog alarm.

The light was put in operation during the winter months of 1940 to 1945 and used as an aid to the local flying schools. In 1965 a dwelling was constructed on the site and it is presently running by means of electricity. This lighthouse is one of the most popular sight seeing places on the Island.