Ferryland is where George Calvert, better known as Lord Baltimore, founded the Colony of Avalon in 1621. Today, you can peer over the shoulders of archaeologists as they uncover the foundations of houses and a cobblestone street built in the seventeenth century, and see some of the thousands of artifacts at the interpretation centre.

Even before Baltimore, the Ferryland area had been used as a summer fishing station by migratory European fishermen. It had also drawn the notice of the Beothuks, the now extinct aboriginal people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Baltimore stayed only a few years before transferring his energies into another colony in Maryland. But Ferryland survived his exit and prospered, despite a raid by the Dutch in the 1670s until the 1690s when French raids drove the English away. But the Colony of Avalon was close to rich fishing grounds and too good to be abandoned, and was soon reoccupied.

There’s a distinct Irish feel here, and with good reason. The Irish came to dominate this shore - first as summer workers for English and Irish fish merchants, then as permanent settlers as the eighteenth century wore on.

Today, this area is known as the Irish heart of Newfoundland and Labrador. Irish traditions, attitudes, and music continue to survive here. The town of Ferryland regularly hosts summer musical events and dinner theatre productions with a strong local flavour, and no shortage of the famed Irish wit. After a day of traditional dancing and entertainment, you can sit on the front porch of the museum and look toward the sea across a meadow – called The Gaze.

At nearby Ferryland Head, accessible by an easy walking and hiking trail across the Downs, is the lighthouse where you can have a scrumptious picnic while watching for whales, birds and icebergs. The town’s museum is housed in the old courthouse – complete with a couple of holding cells – where you can discover many of the legends and characters of Ferryland history.

Ferryland is located on the Avalon Peninsula of the island of Newfoundland, just one hour’s drive from St. John’s along Route 10.