Point Aconi Lighthouse

The Point Aconi Lighthouse stands near High Point, about a mile south of Cape Breton's northernmost tip at Point Aconi, where Spanish Bay meets the open Atlantic. The original 1874 light was a square wooden tower with an attached keeper's dwelling, carrying a fixed red catadioptric lens. After the light was discontinued between 1943 and 1955, a skeleton tower carried the light until a circular fibreglass tower with a red lantern was erected in 1989 as the second-generation Point Aconi light.

That 1989 fibreglass tower was destroyed by fire in February 2014, and the navigational light now operates from a skeletal steel tower on the site. The light's history is one of fits and starts — discontinued, revived, rebuilt, and rebuilt again — reflecting the rugged conditions of this exposed point on the Marconi Trail. Today the site is reached by quiet coastal roads through the former coal-mining communities of Boularderie Point, and though the distinctive fibreglass tower is gone, the point remains a worthwhile stop for lighthouse enthusiasts exploring Cape Breton's northern shore.