Today was my last full day on Prince Edward Island and I had set it aside to explore the most popular part of Prince Edward Island National Park which incorporated Cavendish Beach and Green Gables.
I started out at Green Gables as I thought this was the place that was likely to become busy later. It was only a few miles down the road from my rotating apartment, so I arrived just after opening time and the place was virtually empty.
I started out by walking around the mock up of the Green Gables house. Green Gables is fictitious, but it was based on a house that really did exist and belonged to relatives of LM Montgomery. The house was not original. In fact, nothing from the time when LM Montgomery lived with her grandparents in the late 19th century still exists. The foundations and a few stones are left of the original house, everywhere else has a sign proclaiming “here stood the house/school/post office where LM Montgomery lived/studied/worked”. You get the idea.
What did still exist was the woodland where LM Montgomery used to walk and use her imagination to think up creations and stories for her books. Lovers Lane and the Haunted Wood, as she named them, were still there. I walked along Lovers Lane and through the Haunted Wood and to a post office which was not part of the National Park, but instead was owned by the family of LM Montgomery and was the site where the house where she lived with her grandparents had been located.
I then headed into the National Park to see the coastline and beaches which was mainly what the National Park protected and especially the sand dunes as I’d seen in Greenwich a few days earlier.
I drove all the way out to Dalvey-by-the-Sea and saw the old mansion which was now a hotel. I went inside for a quick look, but decided not to stay to eat. Instead I went to park up to do the Bubbling Brook hike which took me to a disappointing, dirty looking pond which was neither worthy of a photo or a walk.
Much more rewarding was Robinsons Island and the 5km trail round the island. This was hugely enjoyable, the trail took in the woods and the coastline. There were 2 sets of red chairs in different locations along the trail, I set up my gorilla grip to take photos in both of them. The trail on Robinsons Island was for both hiker and cyclists, but they had to go round the trail in opposite directions and there were several sections with adventure obstacles for mountain bikers along the route. I didn’t meet any cyclists, I did meet some other hikers who had chosen to completely ignore the instructions about which direction they should be hiking the trail.
After my enjoyable walk I arrived back at my car to find I’d been given a warning notice about not paying to be in the National Park. I had paid, I’d bought a National Park Annual Pass that very morning at Green Gables, however, I’d not displayed my pass in my windscreen as I’d showed it to staff at the booth at the Park entrance and believed that was sufficient. I spoke to rangers at the booth on the way out who said they would sort it out for me.
I drove down to Cavendish Beach parking area and walked over the sand dunes to get to the beach. I had seen plenty of beaches on Prince Edward Island now, so I was quite happy to drive back to the rotating house for a tour of the basement to see how it actually worked.
The rotating house is called Around the Sea and is built on a steel disc that rotates 360 degrees one way and then back the other way. The ground floor of the house is divided into 4 apartments which take paying guests, the upper floor is where the owner and his family live.
As it was early in the season only 2 of the 4 apartments were occupied by tourists, me being one of them, so Steve had it rotating for a while and then stopped it with both occupied apartments facing out to sea. He said he needed to rotate it a bit more when all the apartments were full, so everyone had a turn of a sea view, but at the moment all guests had a permanent sea view.
Steve explained that he wanted to build a round house, but had the idea of making it a rotating house after he had seen one on a holiday in Australia. This Australian house was made of steel. Steve had found a company called Daltec based in North Carolina who constructed round houses that were strong enough to withstand hurricanes. Unfortunately they told him that building a rotating house would not be possible. Undeterred, Steve had the steel disc for the house to sit on made in Australia and shipped over. He set the round house on top of the disc and had his rotating round house with a sea view on the northern shore of Prince Edward Island.
The house was completed in 2012 and is the only one that has apartments to rent. There are other rotating houses in the world, but they are privately owned and do not accept guests.
Around the Sea is located on top of a hill, so even in fine weather it could be cold and windy and this June evening was no exception. However, before settling in for the night, I took the shortcut path down to the shore and had an hour long walk along the beach that I could see from my rotating apartment. The weather had acted as a good deterrent to keep everyone else off the beach tonight, so I had the place to myself.
Tomorrow I would be leaving Prince Edward Island and exploring New Brunswick in the next part of my epic Canadian adventure.
I travelled around Atlantic Canada in June 2018.
See the Parks Canada website for more information on Prince Edward Island National Park. Fees are applicable all year round in the western section of the National Park, including Cavendish Beach and Robinsons Island. List of fees.
Green Gables Heritage Place is operated by Parks Canada and located in Cavendish and is open 9.00am to 5.00pm daily from May to October. Entrance fees apply and can be found on the website.
I stayed in one of the four ground floor apartments in Around the Sea Rotating House located in North Rustico. You can book accommodation through Around the Sea Rotating House website. There is a minimum 2 night stay in low and shoulder season and a minimum weekly stay in high season. A complimentary tour of the house to see the rotating mechanism is included.
North Rustico is located on the northern shore of Prince Edward Island in the central part of the island making it an ideal base for exploring this island province. The town is located less than 5 minutes drive from one of the entrances to the western section of Prince Edward Island National Park. North Rustico is 32km from Charlottetown, approximately 30 minutes drive and the Confederation Bridge is 52km away, approximately 45 minutes by car.
The Confederation Bridge is the only way to reach Prince Edward Island by road. It is 12.9km or 8 miles long. A fee of $47.50 per car is charged when exiting Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick. There is no charge for crossing the bridge from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island.
Read about my other adventures on Prince Edward Island.
North Cape Coastal Drive Part 1
North Cape Coastal Drive Part 2
Charlottetown – Pocket Capital of Prince Edward Island
And check out more of my posts about Canada
Canada: Saint John River Valley
Canada: Magnetic Hill and Fundy National Park
Canada: Quebec – Waterfalls, Via Ferrata and A Religious Theme Park
