Cape North

Cape North is the northern promontory on Cape Breton Island. Its bald, rocky headland rises abruptly from the shoreline to heights of over 300 m. Nearby Sugarloaf Mountain is one of the sites claimed to have been John Cabot's landfall in 1497. The currents around the cape are generally directed out of the Gulf of St Lawrence as part of the Cape Breton Current. However, violent local storms with sustained easterly winds can create opposing flow near the coast and strong current rips. Cape North has long been an important centre for communications. The first undersea telegraph cable from Newfoundland came ashore here in 1856 and was used until 1867, when it was replaced by the North Sydney-Placentia line.