Conception Harbour

The town of Conception Harbour [incorporated in 1972] is located between Colliers and Avondale on the Admirals' Coast. According to the 2006 census, it has a population of 743.

Annual Events in Conception Harbour

Conception Harbour Garden Party held by St. Anne's Parsh, which has been held every summer since 1910, is the longest running garden party in the region.

Conception Harbour
Photo: David McNeil

Conception Harbour, which includes Bacon Cove and Kitchuses (believed to be the first settled parts of the town), has a number of points of interest. St. Anne's Church is one of the oldest in the area. The sheltered and scenic harbour has many ship wrecks and one of the province's last whaling wrecks can be seen partially above the water line. The many underwater wrecks make the harbour a popular site for kayaking and scuba diving. There is also a hiking trail, natural water fall, and picnic area.

St. Anne's Church

The Trahey Property

This collection of buildings forms a rare intact example of the type of structures used in the domestic economy of rural Newfoundland during the 19th and 20th centuries. It includes a house, stable, carriage house/workshop, store, fencing, gate, gardens and rock-lined root cellar that accommodated the agricultural and fishing activities typical of the families in Conception Harbour until the mid-20th century. The property has been in the Trahey family name since before 1800. The dwelling house was constructed in about 1914-1915.

Trahey Property
Photo: Bruce K. Lane
(Capital Coast Development Alliance)

The Daring Men Who Built the World’s Greatest Skyline

Conception Harbour is known as the home of ironworkers who built skyscrapers, bridges and other "high steel" structures throughout North America beginning in the early 1900s. Jim Rasenberger, author of the 2004 book High Steel: The Daring Men Who Built the World’s Greatest Skyline, says throughout his research, he found the role Newfoundlanders played in high-rise construction fascinating.

“The one thing most Americans know about ironwork is that Mohawks do it,” he says. “Nobody knows about the role of Newfoundlanders, which I think is … every bit as significant and is every bit as important to the New York skyline.”

Well known Newfoundland actors Mary Walsh and Rick Boldand have develped a musical production (with music by Ron Hynes), entitled High Steel. The play tells the story follows three generations of ironworkers in the Costello family, from Conception Harbour. Although the tale is fiction, it’s strongly grounded in fact.

Corporal Jamie Murphy Memorial

Conception Harbour is the home of Corporal Jamie Murphy, 26, one of the first Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. He was killed in January 2004 by a suicide bomber, as he was patrolling streets in Kabul. On Remembrance Day, July 1, 2007, the community unveiled a monument overlooking the town to his memory. A portrait of Jamie Murphy and the words Lest We Forget are engraved in the grey marble of monument.

Bacon Cove

Bacon Cove, which is part of Conception Harbour, has a site that is of great interest to geologists. The unconformity between Late Proterozoic and Cambrian rocks is not often exposed. A particularly good example may be seen in Bacon Cove, where the gap in the rock record represents an interval of about 100 million years. Glaciation provided the latest cycle of erosion, exposing the surfaces that can be seen today. Modern weathering and erosion by waves are continuing to crack off blocks from the shore ledges.

Sunken Whaler
Photo: Bruce K. Lane
(Capital Coast Development Alliance)

Conception Harbour
Click for larger version, then right border for next.

Islands
Kelly's Island

Communities
with Photos
Avondale
Colliers
Conception Bay South (CBS) [Topsail, Chamberlains, Manuels, Long Pond, Foxtrap, Kelligrews, Upper Gullies, Lawrence Pond and Seal Cove]
Conception Harbour
Harbour Main- Chapel's Cove -Lakeview
Holyrood
Marysvale
Paradise

Societies
Manuels River Natural Heritage Society
Marysvale Heritage Society