Points East Coastal Drive - Prince Edward Island PEI

On April 25, 1836 records show that 175 vessels were anchored in Cardigan Bay to weather a storm.  The "Battle of the Islands" began to chose the proper location for a key lighthouse and Panmure was the island of choice not Boughton. In 1853, Panmure Head Lighthouse became PEI’s first wooden lighthouse and the second lighthouse to be built on the Island following the brick conical lighthouse at Point Prim. 

Panmure is also one of the last of 15 octagonal lighthouses left in Canada. The light is a five story, 18.6 meters (58 foot) wooden tower marking the entrance to Georgetown Harbour.

It is an architectural gem and is more highly decorated than most lighthouses. Outside, it has red-painted corbelled cornice brackets holding up the walkway around the light room, and pedimented caps over windows and doors. Inside it shows the craftsmanship of early shipwrights because it was constructed by men who built the very wooden ships it would protect. The Panmure Head Lighthouse is a masterpiece of ship-like joinery held in place by wooden pegs, called “tree nails”. As you wander between floors, you can see small wooden laths inserted between the floor planks. In the days before tongue-and-groove, this was a device used by shipwrights to keep water from seeping between levels on a ship. And, in another trick learned at sea, Panmure’s windows are held in place by wooden “splines”. The whole window can be removed simply my moving a few small pieces of wood.

Looking back... The Panmure Light was a coast light and an important navigational aide because of the heavy shipping by steamer, schooner and fishing boats on the Cardigan, Brudenell and Montague Rivers, now classified as Canadian Heritage Rivers. This made the Panmure Light essential because of a sandbar which grounded dozens of ships each year as captains tried to take a shortcut into Cardigan Bay. This sandbar is now the foundation for the causeway that connects Panmure Island to the rest of PEI.

In 1908, the Department of Transport installed a fog alarm, one of the first in this area. The light was automated in 1985. It has one of the best preserved Bullseye Beehive light lens in the country. It’s 700 watts strong and can been seen for 32 kms (20 miles).

The light still guides today's fishing boat traffic.

The site offers guided interpretive tours and great views of Panmure beaches. Gift shop.