4 Best Sights in South Shore and Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia

This iconic red-and-white lighthouse has long been one of Nova Scotia’s most-visited attractions and is thought to be one of the most photographed spots in Canada. A wooden lighthouse was erected on this point in 1868, to be replaced in 1915 with the concrete octagon that stands today. In 2021, a C$3.1 million redevelopment made the lighthouse fully accessible, adding a huge viewing platform looking out over craggy rocks and the lighthouse, and walkways connecting visitors to the parking lot and village. 

It isn't the South Shore's most photogenic lighthouse—the one at Peggy's Cove wins that award—but this one scores points for its dramatic vistas and the dearth of other camera-clutching tourists. Erected in 1962 on the site of an earlier lighthouse, the concrete structure rises 75 feet above the entrance to Yarmouth Harbour. The adjacent keeper's quarters house a small museum with interactive exhibits, a fully equipped light-keeper's workshop, a restaurant, and a gift shop. There's also a new accessible viewing platform.

This is one of Canada's oldest surviving lighthouses, located on the site where Samuel de Champlain and Sieur de Monts landed in 1604. Inside, the Port of the Privateers exhibit recounts the lighthouse's decades of stalwart service, from its completion in 1855 until 1989, when operations ceased. Even if the lighthouse isn't open when you arrive, there are interpretive signs outside, and the views of Liverpool Harbour from the park are splendid.