The Best of the Ceilidh Trail

Port Hastings Historical Society & Archives

24 Highway 19, Port Hastings

Enjoy the panoramic view of the Strait of Canso, the genealogical records and history of the area, including extensive displays on the world’s largest deepest man-made causeway.

Cape Breton Celtic Music Interpretive Centre

Judique

Here you’ll find the Buddy MacMaster School of Fiddling, workshops hosted by master musicians, an in-depth musical archive and library, demonstrations, exhibits, weekly ceilidhs and impromptu musical celebrations.

Glenora Distillery

Highway 19, Glenville

Cradled in the picturesque Inverness hills is Canada’s only distiller of single-malt whisky. Stop by to enjoy a warming tipple of Glen Breton Rare, a tour and a song.

Inverness County Centre for the Arts

Highway 19, Inverness

This fine arts centre showcases the work of local and international artists in its gallery, music studio and shop.

Inverness Miners Museum

62 Lower Railway Street, Inverness

Relive the heyday of the coal mining industry from 1803 on, through extensive displays, artifacts and photographs collected in the former Canadian National Railway Station (c 1901).

Inverness Raceway

112 Forrest Street, Inverness

Twice a week all summer, this half-mile track features nine cards of harness racing. Place your wagers on the trotters and colts at the Atlantic Sire Stakes or another of the exciting races.

Red Shoe Pub

Highway 19, Mabou

Owned and operated by the renowned musical Rankin family, this cozy nook serves up old-fashioned Cape Breton hospitality, great food and drink, and live entertainment from the island’s foremost traditional musicians.

West Mabou Beach Provincial Park

Little Mabou Road

Bring your rod and reel: the walking trails off this beautiful sandy beach lead to a well-stocked fishing pond.

Broad Cove Banks Road

Inverness

For a panoramic ocean vista, follow the narrow gravel road along the edge of the bluffs above the sea. You’re likely to see lobstermen hauling traps from their boats onto the wharves below.

Port Hood Beach

The setting sun flares gently behind Port Hood Island, just off the shore of this wide golden-sanded beach. With its green meadows, high bluffs and brightly painted houses, it’s one of the most-captured scenes on the Ceilidh Trail.

Doug Fraser Art Studio

178 Lochban Road, Inverness

Fraser’s oil paintings evoke the luminous skies, misty atmospheres and natural serenity of the island of his birth.

Galloping Cows Fine Foods

Route 1, Port Hood

Bring home a taste of Cape Breton Island: pick up a jar of gingered sea salt, blueberry-rhubarb preserves, cranberry pepper jelly, maple butter or another of the gourmet delights made at this charming shop.

Suzanne Craig Designs

595 Mabou Mines Road

Lushly detailed botanical prints of Cape Breton’s native flora, including beautiful arrangements of mayflowers, blue flag irises and heather, along with cranberries, chanterelle mushrooms and fiddlehead ferns.

West Mabou Family Square Dances

Mabou

The West Mabou Sports Club offers family square dances every Saturday night throughout the year. Enjoy outdoor dancing under the stars on our stage during summer months.

Broad Cove Scottish Concert

Broad Cove, July 31, 2011

Learn a jig and clap along to the reels and fiddle music at the largest outdoor Scottish concert in Cape Breton. Broad Cove is home to one of the island’s two Celtic music schools, and the talent pool here seems bottomless.

Chestico Days Summer Festival

Port Hood, August 2-7, 2011

This week-long summer festival features a golf tournament, horse and road races, ceilidhs and concerts, a barbecue and beer garden, parades, boat rides and fireworks.

Kintyre Farm Scottish Concert

Judique, August 21, 2011

This annual outdoor family concert features Inverness County’s famed fiddlers, singers, dancers, pipers and Celtic guitarists. Kintyre has a natural amphitheatre nestled in the gentle hills of a pioneer farm—pack a blanket or lawn chair for this scenic country setting.