Battle Harbour, Labrador - centuries-old fishing village

Many of the community’s historic clapboard buildings
have become boutique hotels.
BARRETT & MACKAY/NEWFOUNDLAND
AND LABRADOR TOURISM

This centuries-old fishing village takes on a new life as a boutique hotel and living-history museum

The old man on the dock is trying to tell me something, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is. After two days spent travelling here by plane, car and ferry, I’m tired and a little disoriented, but surely that doesn’t entirely account for my confusion. He’s definitely speaking English. I think. I smile and wish him well before hopping onto the boat for the final leg of my journey to the remote fishing village of Battle Harbour, Labrador.

“I see you met Alf!” says Peter Bull, executive director of the community’s historic trust, as we chug out to sea on a small ferry. “Did you catch a word he said?” Alf, I learn, is the unofficial welcome committee for visitors heading to Battle Harbour. He’s lived 80-plus years in this remote corner of Canada, and with his Labradorian accent thick as cod chowder, is eager to share his stories about this unique place with visitors.

Before it became a tourist destination, Battle Harbour was one of the most important communities in Labrador. From the 1770s to the 1950s, this tiny island was a thriving fishing port for cod, salmon and seal. Schooners would arrive laden with salt from Spain and molasses from the Caribbean, and leave with their holds full of dried salted fish and seal oil, creating seasonal jobs for thousands of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and an economic engine for the entire region.

Battle Harbour’s fortunes followed those of cod fishery, and the last year-round residents (“livyers” in the local dialect) were relocated to the mainland in the 1960s as part of a mass provincial resettlement scheme. The island was turned over to the non-profit historic trust in the 1990s and, after an extensive restoration, many of its historic clapboard buildings now return to life each summer as one-of-a-kind boutique hotels. Visitors who brave the journey here are rewarded not only with some of the most spectacular scenery in maritime Canada, but an opportunity to be immersed in the region’s deep and colourful history.

While every effort has been made to preserve buildings such as the 18th-century pork store and the church – the second-oldest in the province – Battle Harbour has plenty of 21st-century comfort on offer, too. My room, the Earle Suite, is in the former home of the port’s last owners, and features a soaker tub, a king-sized bed covered with a handmade quilt and postcard-worthy views of the harbour. A cozy communal dining room now takes up the former salmon store, where the island’s culinary team prepares cod cakes, rhubarb crumble and other regional delicacies. The old general store is stocked with handmade Labradorite jewellery, partridgeberry jams and all manner of other locally made crafts. Battle Harbour’s livyers, meanwhile, now lead tours, staff the kitchen and otherwise take every opportunity to serve as interpreters to this unique corner of the Maritimes.

Some of the area’s historic buildings show their age
more than others. DRU KENNEDY/NEWFOUNDLAND
AND LABRADOR TOURISM

“All over Newfoundland and Labrador, all of the places like this are gone,” says Nelson Smith of the cod-fishing “rooms” that once flourished along the province’s coast. Smith grew up on the island, the fifth generation of his family to do so, and now serves as Battle Harbour’s restoration carpenter. Smith leads a tour of the island’s historic sites, from the Newfoundland Rangers’ station, to the original Marconi radio towers, to the site of American explorer Robert Peary’s 1909 press conference after his trip to the North Pole. He peppers his tour with anecdotes about growing up in Battle Harbour, where he spent summers gutting cod and winters commuting to the mainland by dogsled.

Thanks to the efforts of the Battle Harbour Historic Trust, life here is now considerably more luxurious than it was in those days, but the wildness and striking beauty of the place remain – as do locals such as Smith and Alf, whose stories bring the place’s history to life. Some translation is occasionally required.

How to get there
Fly into Deer Lake, Nfld., then drive up the coast through Gros Morne National Park to catch the ferry to Labrador at Sainte-Barbe. After docking in Blanc-Sablon, Que., it’s a scenic three-hour drive to Mary’s Harbour to catch the boat to Battle Harbour.

What to bring
Hiking boots, bug spray, bug jacket and binoculars for whale-, bird- and iceberg-watching.

Where to stay
Battle Harbour offers a range of rooms, suites and cottages, from hostel-style bunks in the Cookhouse to the Grenfell Doctor’s Cottage, a historic home with room for up to eight guests.

*BY JEREMY FREEDSPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL