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Photo: Alicejmichel, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
A UNESCO world heritage listed wilderness area featuring fossil sites. The reserve is 2.5 km along the gravel road to Cape Race from Portugal Cove South. Access within the Reserve is by foot only (no vehicles, no horses, no bikes). Access to view the fossils is by guided tour or permit only (the tour is free, but must be reserved in advance; space is limited). Allow 3-4 hours and about 4km (2.5mi) of walking for the full tour. The area is named "Mistaken Point" as ships mistakenly turning here instead of at Cape Race were at risk of being run aground.
Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve is a wilderness area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site located at the southeastern tip of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The reserve is home to the namesake Mistaken Point Formation, which contains one of the most diverse and well-preserved collections of Precambrian fossils in the world. Ediacaran fossils discovered at the site constitute the oldest known remnants of multicellular life on Earth.
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The first lighthouse was installed here by the British Government in 1856. It was replaced in 1907 by the current lighthouse, a 29-metre (95-ft) tall concrete tower and a light.
As first landfall in the New World for steamships and ocean liners, Cape Race was once a centre for telegraphy despite its remote location. Messages and international news received from inbound trans-Atlantic ships would arrive here first, to be sent onward from this station to the mainland. A museum of communications and navigation history recalls the April 14, 1912 reception of Titanic’s distress signal. Building is a replica of the 1904 Cape Race Marconi Station and also houses a radio amateur club, VO1MCE.
Interpretive centre provides a historical overview of the Edge of Avalon Heritage Coast. Edge of the Sea souvenir shop with books, posters and local crafts including hooked rugs, knitted woolens, paintings, photography, pottery, jewellery and quilts.
The reserve, four islands between Witless Bay and Bauline, is a nesting area for seabirds which feed on capelin in the area. Tour boats run from Bay Bulls and Witless Bay for bird and whale watching. The boats do not allow passengers to disembark onto the islands, a protected wildlife area.