Mahone Bay

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Map highlighting Mahone Bay.

This article is about the water body. See Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia for the article about the municipality.

Mahone Bay is a bay located on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada along the eastern end of Lunenburg County.

Opening south directly onto the Atlantic, its eastern shore is formed by the Aspotogan Peninsula and its western shore is formed by the First Peninsula (of Lunenburg) and its landlocked extension named 'Heckmans Island'. The 'Chester Peninsula' juts several kilometres into Mahone Bay at roughly its midpoint.

The bay's geological history differs from its eastern neighbour, St. Margarets Bay, in that Mahone Bay shows a greater variety of soils and bedrock. Numerous glacial drumlins on the western shore near the towns of Mahone Bay and Lunenburg have resulted in small-scale farming operations.

Mahone Bay also differs from St. Margarets Bay in that it is dotted with innumerable small and medium-sized islands throughout its waters. The shelter provided by these islands, along with the summer southwesterly flow, led to the scenery around Mahone Bay becoming a tourist attraction in itself. Today the towns of Chester and Mahone Bay have become a destination for cruising in pleasure yachts. A scenic provincial park at Graves Island just east of Chester is a popular camping destination.

Mahone Bay is also home to numerous picturesque working fishing communities, most famous being the community of Tancook Island, located on Big Tancook Island. Other important fishing ports include Blandford and Little Tancook Island.

Mahone Bay was named after the French mahonne (English: Barge), which referred to a type of boat used by local privateers^[1].