Episode 09: The Lighthouse Innkeeper- Ed English

Quirpon Island, looking out at the Cape Bauld lighthouse and the Strait of Belle Isle.

Imagine an island so remote, so distant from what you might consider civilization, that all you can see around you is ocean, windswept rock, giant drifting icebergs, the occasional spout or fin of a passing whale, and a single solitary lighthouse from which to view the ends of the earth.

This is life on Quirpon (rhymes with harpoon) Island, at the extreme northern tip of Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula. The island looks out on the Strait of Belle Isle, where the northern outflow of the mighty St. Lawrence feeds into the Atlantic Ocean. In spring and early summer, icebergs the size of office towers flow past in stately procession, calved from the glaciers of western Greenland. And from the steps of the Lighthouse Inn, you can watch whales, orcas, and dolphins feast in the churning sea below.

Whales, gannets, icebergs, and sunsets viewed from the Lighthouse Inn.

The waterways around Quirpon were frequented by indigenous peoples for millennia, visited by Vikings a thousand years ago, and “discovered” by Basque whalers and fishermen in the 1500s.

Each left behind stories in their passing, stories kept by the current owner, innkeeper, and chief storyteller on Quirpon, Ed English.

Standing out of the wind (sort of) with Ed English

A descendant of generations of Newfoundlanders. 25 years ago, almost on a whim, Ed decided to purchase the old lighthouse keeper’s house and turn it into an Inn. Built in 1922, it’s a great little place to stay, if you can figure out how to get here. That was Ed’s first challenge.

What’s it’s like to visit here, and is it true French sailors refused to set foot on the place they called the Isle of Demons?

Best to let Ed English tell it. Click below.