The nation of Canada was created by the British North America Act in 1867 with Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia as the four original provinces. The province of Québec was the heart of New France, the former French empire in North America, from tthe founding of Québec city in 1608 until France was forced to cede its Canadian territories to Britain at the end of the Seven Years War in 1763. Today Canada is a federation of ten provinces and three large federal territories in the far north of the country. Québec is the largest and second most populous of the provinces. It includes both sides of the St. Lawrence River and Estuary from Montréal to the Gulf of St. Lawrence as well as the north shore of the Gulf; it also extends far to the north with long coastlines on Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait. Its population, more than 8 million, is concentrated in the valley of the St. Lawrence. The province once had at least 275 lighthouses but only about 80 remain today. North of the St. Lawrence many lighthouses are accessible from Québec highway 138, which follows the north shore of the St. Lawrence. The province plans to extend this highway all the way to the border of Labrador, but currently there is still a gap of some 375 km (233 mi) between Kegashka and Vieux-Fort. Québec is divided into 17 administrative regions (région administrative). Outside of the major urban areas Québec is further divided into 86 county-level regional county municipalities (municipalité régionale de comté). This page lists lighthouses of the north shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence Estuary in the Côte-Nord Region. Aids to navigation in Canada are maintained by the Canadian Coast Guard. In 2008 Parliament passed the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act to designate and protect historic lighthouses. French is the official language of Québec. The French word for a lighthouse, phare, is often reserved for the larger lighthouses; a smaller light or harbor light is called a feu (literally "fire," but here meaning "light"). 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. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. CCG 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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![]() Île Greenly Light, Blanc-Sablon, August 2023 Facebook photo by Corporation de l’Île Greenly |
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![]() Île Plate Lights, Gros-Mécatina, undated Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans photo |
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![]() 1912 Escarpement Bagot (Bagot Bluff) Light, Île d'Anticosti, June 2005 Google Maps photo by S. Boisvert |
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![]() Pointe du Sud-Ouest Light, Île d'Anticosti, August 2008 Flickr photo copyright Marc Serre; used by permission |
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![]() Île aux Oeufs Light, Rivière-Pentecôte, June 2017 Google Maps photo by Capharnaum86 |
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![]() Cap de Bon Désir Light, La-Haute-Côte-Nord, July 2024 Google Maps photo by yul |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Labrador | East: Central and Western Newfoundland | South: Eastern Québec | West: Central Québec
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted September 12, 2003. Checked and revised July 31, 2024. Lighthouses: 47. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.