Guyon Island Lighthouse

Guyon Island Lighthouse occupies the west end of Guyon Island at the entrance to Forchu Bay on Cape Breton Island's southeastern coast. The original lighthouse here was an imposing 54-foot square wooden tower painted white with red stripes and an attached keeper's dwelling, built to mark the approaches to the bay.

First lit in 1877, the tower was equipped with a catadioptric lens showing a revolving red light, later upgraded to an electric catadioptric lens with a group-flashing white characteristic. A diaphone fog signal was added in 1923. After a century of service the original wooden tower was replaced in 1977 by a 42-foot octagonal white concrete tower, which was automated by 1986.

Keeper Bill Ringer tended the station in the mid-1970s, just before the original tower was retired. Guyon Island remains remote and accessible only by boat along the Fleur-de-lis Trail, so the station is best appreciated from the water as one of the most exposed lights on Cape Breton's south coast.