Seal Island Light Museum Part 2

So yesterday I made wrong a post showing you the Lighthouse part of the Seal Island Light Museum. Today I am going to focus this on the “Museum” part of it for you.

As mentioned in my previous post this Light was never technically a ‘real’ lighthouse. It is not anywhere near the shore to help vessels stay out of danger, Its purpose really always was to be a museum. Located in Barrington, Nova Scotia, it is a replica of the original Lighthouse of Seal Island and its light is from the original lighthouse and is more than 80 years old. When you walk in there are some interesting artifacts on the main floor, as well as some small gift shop type items. You are free to look around, the museum is staffed however, in my experience they weren’t much for showing me around or telling me anything…. I guess if I wanted to know what something was every time I saw something new I had to ask. So it was a good thing I’ve read up a lot on this Light, and knew what some of the photos and things were from my research.

Like I said, there are some neat things to see inside such as the Original Lens form the Bon Portage Lighthouse shown below:A whale gun recovered from the sea:

This old, yet still very large fog horn:

…and of course quite a bit of information about the history of the Lighthouse Keepers.

Once you make your way around the building it is natural to want to start your way up the stairs to see what else is inside, but wait…. This is the point when I was told they’d have to charge me admission if I wanted to go upstairs. Hmmm…. If it were me running the show, I would think it be better to charge first, giving the visitors the most to see for their money. I guess though, in giving the people half of the experience first you are leaving their curiosities open to wonder about what else there may be inside. Maybe that is their strategy and hey, if it works for them who am I to judge. I am not in any way complaining that there is a fee, they obviously need to make some money to keep the operation going and it is a small / fair amount to be asking. $3 per person, children under 5 are free and $10 per family is not a lot.

Once you head up stairs there isn’t a whole lot left to the museum part of things, the 2^nd floor has some points of interest, however the further up you go, the more narrow the floors get so the less stuff there is. So if you are not brave enough to step out on the top deck, the main floor is where you will get the most from your experience.

I grabbed one of their travel brochures for my scrapbook and it’s a little out dated. One thing they point out is that there is a Lighthouse Take Out restaurant and picnic tables for staying to enjoy lunch, there was actually only 1 picnic table, and the Take Out was closed, in fact, it had a for sale sign on it that said the building was for sale and to be moved away.

The light is open seasonally from Mid-June to Mid-September, 7 days a week, and as a lighthouse lover I strongly suggest stopping to visit this light, I think I mentioned it in my previous post that it was a nice break from chasing real lighthouses in the fog, and if you really enjoy lighthouses like I do, any chance to be able to be inside one is an extra special treat. J

Happy & Safe Travels

~Jenn