Article

Percé Rock

Published Online February 7, 2006

Last Edited March 23, 2015

Percé Rock (or Rocher Percé) is a monolith off the Gaspé Pen​insula, 750 km east of ​Québec City, near its namesake, the town of Per​cé.

Rocher Percé
Rocher Percé in Gaspesie, Quebec. Photo taken on: July 26th, 2012
Percé Rock
Percé is one of Canada's foremost tourist attractions and an important bird sanctuary in eastern Québec (photo by Thomas Kitchin).
Percé Rock (Painting)
Lucius O'Brien, 1882, watercolour (courtesy Mr John Grant, Vancouver).
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This limestone island-peninsula, once attached to the shoreline, is of an impressive size: 450 m long, 90 m wide and 85 m high. It can be reached at low tide. Its name derives from the fact that the sea has pierced holes in its structure to form archways. According to some, there were once four arches, but only one large opening, 30 m wide, exists today. It is known that one arch eroded in 1845, leaving the pillar known as L’Obélisque. Enigmatic and fascinating, immortalized by artists, poets and writers, Percé Rock is one of the major tourist attractions of Québec and Canada, and is an important bird sanctuary. Along with Île Bonaventure, it makes up a provincial park (1985).