Cape Bonavista Light is a lighthouse located on Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland. It was built between 1841 and 1843 to mark the entrances to Bonavista and Trinity Bays and to aid mariners headed for Labrador. It is the fourth oldest lighthouse in Newfoundland. The two-story wooden building is built around a masonry tower surmounted by a lantern. The first lamps and reflectors came from the Bell Rock Lighthouse in Scotland.[1]. This apparatus was later replaced by a catoptric system from the Harbour Grace Lighthouse on the Isle of May in Scotland. In 1962 the lighthouse went dark, replaced by an electric light on a nearby steel skeleton tower.
In the 1970s the lighthouse was restored as a museum by the provincial government[2]. The building contains furniture and artifacts representing the pre-1870 period. The rare catoptric lighting system, made up of Argand oil lamps and parabolic mirrors of polished silver, is on display. There are also exhibits on local industry including coopering, fishing, whaling and sealing, as well as the ecological history of Cape Bonavista.
On August 3, 2001 a disastrous electrical storm struck Cape Bonavista. As lightning struck repeatedly all around the cape, the lighthouse tower was hit three times, igniting a fire. Quick action by the fire department prevented a much worse tragedy.[3].