Day 133
There are a few lighthouses we missed on our first tour through PEI, one of these was the Cape Egmont Lighthouse located southwest of Wellington. Back in 1881, parliament appropriated $2500.00 dollars to build this lighthouse. Tenders were invited for the project and the contract was awarded to Laurent Perry, at $1695.00. Due to difficulties obtaining the land, work on the lighthouse did not begin until 1883. Situated on the extreme point of Cape Egmont, 100 feet from its south and west banks, Cape Egmont Lighthouse was finally completed and put in operation in September of 1884, with Bruno Perry serving as its keeper at an annual salary of $200.00.
Between 1958 and 1965, the house attached to the lighthouse was removed and in 1965 the lighthouse was made electric. This downgraded the keepers role to caretaker, dropping his annual salary from $2250.00 to $150.00. Due to severe shoreline erosion, the lighthouse was moved back from the surrounding bluffs in April, 2000. In the pictures below you can see the original cement pad from the lighthouse laying below the bluff, showing how far the erosion has gone.
After spending some time listening and watching the waves, we moved down the highway to The Bottle Houses. This place is a small bottle house village that contains a six gabled house, tavern, chapel and gift shop. The whole place is one massive garden with a large goldfish pond with a fountain in the centre. The buildings were small but large enough to enter and walk around in, as you moved around the sunlight would light up the bottles giving a very interesting effect to the interior. From there we headed into to Summerside to explore a little before heading home.
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