The cape is the most westerly point on the island of Newfoundland, situated at the end of the Anguille Mountains which run northeast to southwest between the Codroy Valley and St. George's Bay. At its peak, the cape rises 188 m high (615 ft) from the shore.

This section of the valley was settled in the 1800s by French fishermen. The three major communities, from North to South are Cape Anguille, Codroy and Woodville.

While connected by a good road to the rest of the valley since the 1880s (and after that, from the 1890s on by the railroad) because their main source of income has always been the fishing industry, they do not share the same "history" of some of the other valley towns, described later.

Cape Anguille: While most people would not be familiar with the word "anguille" most Canadians having any knowledge of the French language would guess that the word "anguille" is of French origin.

From the French Wikipedia, the term anguilk refers to "an ambiguous vernacular name designating several species of serpentiform fish belonging to different orders", in other words an "anguilk" is the French word for an eel. The Cape and the community share the same name.

The community was established as early as 1891; today it is best known for the striking white and red lighthouse that is located on the tip of cape. The original lighthouse was built in 1908 after a maritime disaster that occurred in 1905; it was replace in 1960 with the current one.

The new lighthouse is 17.8 m (58 ft) tall; made of concrete what makes it particularly striking that instead of being the typical round or square edifice it is octagonal pyramidal in shape.

On the same site, the Cape Anguille Lighthouse Inn is located in the original two-dwelling building that was home to the various housekeepers and fog alarm engineers and their families that have lived there between 1908 and 1968. In the late 1960s new bungalows were built for lighthouse staff.

Used with permission from "Uncovering the Origin of 1001 Unique Place Names in Newfoundland and Labrador" 2021 Jennifer Leigh Hill

Address of this page: http://nl.ruralroutes.com/CapeAnguille