The nation of Canada was created by the British North America Act in 1867 with Québec as one of the four original provinces. Québec is descended from New France, the French empire in North America, which fell to Britain during the Seven Years War (1756-63). Today Québec is the largest of Canada's ten provinces by area and second-largest by population. It retains its French heritage and has French as its official language. The heart of the province is the valley of the St. Lawrence River and Estuary. The St. Lawrence is one of the world's greatest inland waterways: ocean-going ships sail the river to Montréal and many continue on the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Great Lakes. Below Québec city the river widens into an increasingly broad estuary (the largest estuary in the world). Québec is divided into 17 administrative regions (régions administratives). Outside of the major urban areas Québec is further divided into 86 county-level regional county municipalities (municipalités régionale de comté). This page lists lighthouses of the south shore of the estuary downstream from Québec city as well as the Gaspé Peninsula, which extends out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the Îles de la Madeleine located in the Gulf about 175 km (110 mi) southeast of the Gaspé Peninsula. This area includes the two administrative regions Bas-Saint-Laurent (Lower Saint Lawrence) and Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine. French is the sole official language in Québec. The French word for a lighthouse, phare, is often reserved for the larger coastal lighthouses; a smaller light or harbor light is called a feu (literally "fire," but here meaning "light") or a balise (beacon). The front light of a range (alignement) is the feu antérieur and the rear light is the feu postérieur. In French île is an island, cap is a cape, pointe is a promontory or point of land, roche is a rock, récife is a reef, baie is a bay, estuaire is an estuary or inlet, détroit is a strait, rivière is a river, and havre is a harbor. Aids to navigation in Canada are maintained by the Canadian Coast Guard, an agency of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. In 2008 Parliament passed the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act to designate and protect historic lighthouses. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. CCG A-numbers are from the Atlantic Coast list of the List of Lights, Buoys, and Fog Signals of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Admiralty numbers are from Volume H of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA numbers are from Publication 110.
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Bas-Saint-Laurent (Lower St. Lawrence) Region Lighthouses
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![]() Île Verte Light, Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs, August 2021 Instagram photo by Tourisme Bas-Saint-Laurent |
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Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine Region: Gaspésie (Gaspé Peninsula) Lighthouses
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![]() Cap de la Madeleine Light, Rivière-la-Madeleine, August 2022 ex-Instagram photo by inabat23 |
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Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine Region: Îles-de-la-Madeleine Lighthouses
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses: |
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Adjoining pages: North: Northeastern Québec | South: New Brunswick North Coast | Southwest: Southern Québec
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted September 12, 2003. Checked and revised March 16, 2025. Lighthouses: 33. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.