Continued tidbits of info. about the "Avalon Region" ENJOY! The Path Of Our Ancestors: There is also a romantic side to the town's past. During the reign of Elizabeth I, Gilbert Pike, a former member of the Peter Easton's pirate band, fell in love with Sheila Na Geira, an Irish princess whom he had rescued from a Dutch warship, where she was being held prisoner. The couple married and decided to make a new home for themselves in the New World. They settled in Bristol's Hope, where their descendants still live. To the day she died, Sheila was known as "The Carbonear Princess." In summer there's a theatre festival held in her honour, and one of the plays is her story. The Carbonear Museum, located in the old railway station, provides a window on the town's fascinating history. Carbonear also is the home of the annual Conception Bay Folk Festival. Every summer people come from all over to celebrate the music, song and dance of the communities of the North Shore of Conception Bay. If you are in the area during the festival, you can take a day to enjoy traditional music with its roots in the West Country of England. >From here we go to Harbour Grace, a community which derives its name from "Havre de Grace," a name the French bestowed on it in the early 1500s, probably after the French fishing port Le Havre. Harbour Grace was the headquarters of Peter Easton, a famous pirate of the early seventeenth century. His pirates' fort was on the site of the old Customs House in the eastern section of the town. The building is now a Community Museum with three floors of fascinating exhibits that tell of this town's long and illustrious past, including its important role in the history of aviation. Beginning in 1919, Harbour Grace was used as the departure point for many early attempts to fly the Atlantic. The first successful flight from the community was piloted by William Brock and Edward Schlee of Croyden, England, in August, 1927, the same year the first civilian airport in North America was opened here. In 1932, Amelia Earhart left Harbour Grace to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Still a thriving community, Harbour Grace was once the second largest town in Newfoundland and seemed destined to become its second city. Then, a series of seven major fires between 1814 and 1944 drastically impeded the growth and progress of the town. Fortunately many of its historic buildings and fine residences survived. One of the most interesting of these is St. Paul's Anglican Church. It was erected in 1835 and is the oldest stone church in Newfoundland. Next on the route is Spaniard's Bay, a community whose name reflects an era when Spanish - really Basque - fishermen frequented Newfoundland waters. Spanish influence in Newfoundland ended with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in faraway Europe in 1558, but here memory lingers long. Continue to Bay Roberts, a fishing community that received its name from Jersey fishermen who came here from the Channel Islands several centuries ago. Now it's a major service and shopping centre. On Water Street is the old Cable Building which served as a relay station for messages between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin Roosevelt during the second world war. Further east on the street is the Bay Roberts East walking trail through Juggler's Cove to Mad Rocks, where you can see whales and - usually -icebergs in spring and early summer. Past Bay Roberts take Route 72 to the Port de Grave Peninsula where you can visit and photograph some of the striking coastal scenery and fishing villages along the way. At Hibbs Cove there is a Fishermen's Museum with furniture, pictures and artifacts depicting the village lifestyle of years ago. Next to the museum are a one-room schoolhouse and the Porter House, which gives a taste of the lifestyle of an ordinary fisherman from earlier this century. Nearby is the anchor from the PLM 27, one of the ore carriers sunk by a German U-boat off Bell island in 1942. Back on Route 70, continue on to Cupids, the first English settlement in Canada. In 1610, John Guy from Bristol, England established a plantation at what was then known as Cuper's Cove. The first recorded birth of an English child in Newfoundland took place here. Archaeological excavations begun in 1995 have uncovered the long-forgotten site of the old plantation. Artifacts recovered during this dig, and many other exhibits on the community's long history, are found in the Cupids Museum. Visit the archaeology dig and see history being uncovered right before your eyes. In 1910 the town celebrated its 300th anniversary by erecting a monument to Guy. Now, its 400th anniversary is only a few years away. The town has one of the oldest Methodist churches in Newfoundland dating from 1875, which is still in use. And each summer the town celebrates the Cuper's Cove Soiree. One of the great treasures of the Baccalieu Trail is Brigus. Its charming Old World atmosphere and scenic appeal prompted the famous American artist Rockwell Kent to establish a summer residence and studio there in the early part of the last century. But the historic town is best known as the birthplace of Captain Bob Bartlett, born in 1875 and considered an outstanding pioneer of navigation in the Far North. Captain Bartlett accompanied Commodore Peary as far as his last relay point on the 1909 expedition to the North Pole. His former home, Hawthorne Cottage, is a National Historic Site. Brigus also hosts a Blueberry Festival each August. Admiral's Coast The Admiral's Coast follows Route 60 along the western and southern shore of Conception Bay between Colliers and Paradise, and provides excellent views over the bay. Colliers was settled only in the latter part of the 18th century, relatively late compared with towns such as Cupids and Carbonear. While the first settlers were fishermen, by the mid-19th century farming was the main economic activity, as the many meadows in the area attest today. However, little farming is carried on today. Conception Harbour also moved from farming to fishing in the 19th century. However, Bacon Cove, now part of the town but located on a short peninsula to the north, was founded before 1700, and was burned by the French in 1697. In Avondale you'll find an old railway station that has been converted to a museum, although there's a train and some tracks remaining. Harbour Main-Chapels Cove-Lakeview is an amalgamated town comprising the three formerly independent settlements in its name. Harbour Main is an old town, possibly founded by the French in the 1640s. Chapel's Cove was settled in the 19th century and Lakeview in the 20th. By the late 17th century Harbour Main was an English fishing station, and was twice sacked by the French during the colonial wars. In the late 18th century it was settled by the Irish, and thus became a Catholic community in an almost totally Protestant bay, Conception Bay being at that time part of what was termed "the English shore." Because of its religious affiliations, the electoral district of Harbour Main, of which the town was the nomination centre, voted along the same lines as the more Catholic districts of the Southern Shore and St. John's. Holyrood is one of the original tourism destinations in Newfoundland and Labrador. Although the origins of its name and the date of settlement are in dispute, the natural beauty of the area has been noted for centuries, and the arrival of the railway in the late 19th century made it a more accessible destination for people travelling overland from St. John's, who had been driving the dusty roads from the capital since the 1830s. The first hotel was built in the 1860s, and while the train is long gone, the area remains an attractive destination, mainly for day-trippers going "around the bay" for a drive. A popular spot is the riverside Holy Cross park which features an in-river pool. A string of small bayside communities between Seal Cove and Topsail was joined into Conception Bay South in 1971. Today it is the fourth-largest community in the province. Many people have moved there for the magnificent view of Conception Bay, especially in recent years as modern highways now connect the town to St. John's. Commuting distance to downtown St. John's is less than 20 minutes for many residents. This was once a major farming area, supplying meat, milk and vegetables to the city, but most of that is fading away. City residents also built summer homes here. One of the neighbourhoods is Kelligrews, home and inspiration of the famous folk song The Kelligrews Soiree by Johnny Burke, a lively compendium of hijinks and unusual cuisine featured at a traditional community party. The real joke, however, is that almost all the characters mentioned in the song were from St. John's. The soiree is held each The town is one of the few to have a geological attraction, namely the trilobite fossil beds along the Manuels River Linear Park. The fossils found here are similar to those found in southern Spain and Portugal and northern Africa, but different from those found in western Newfoundland. This was a key in establishing the theory of plate tectonics, or continental drift. To be continued: