Gooseberry Cove: There are two Gooseberry Coves One is located south of Placentia on the Avalon Peninsula, the other is this one on the Bonavista Peninsula.

One would assume that the coves would have been named after the wild gooseberries that perhaps grew nearby.

A gooseberry, a species of flowering shrub in the currant family that produces an edible fruit, is typically green but there are red, white and yellow variants.

However, different scholars have different opinions concerning the origin of the name of Gooseberry Cove. From the ENL, comes the following excerpt regarding the Gooseberry Cove in the Avalon Peninsula;

According to M.F. Howley, cited by E.R. Seary (1971), the name Gooseberry was probably applied to the cove because of the existence of gooseberries growing wild there.

Seary discounts this, stating erroneously that there is no evidence that gooseberries grow wild in Newfoundland.

Gooseberries (Ribes) do in fact grow wild in Newfoundland and they are found along the Cape Shore in various coves.

Seary (p. 110) states, however: "there is a likelihood that the original name of the feature was Goose Cove..., retained in Gooseberry (Goose) Cove..., a shift name from Goose Shoal, three-quarters of a mile northwest of the cove, to which the element berry has been arbitrarily added."

"This" Gooseberry Cove was settled in the early 1800s, and according to the ENL "local oral tradition, however, states that the settlement was named for 'the abundant gooseberries that grew there". The following from the ENL, gives a little history. behind the community:

Gooseberry Cove, like nearby Little Heart's East (formerly Heart's Ease), was an early fishing station of West Country merchants.

Heart's Ease is known to have been occupied in the late Seventeenth Century (W.A. Handcock: n.d.), and according to B.C. Butt, the coast from Fox Harbour (now Southport) to Southeast Point, Heart's Ease Inlet (including Gooseberry Cove) was known to have supported a winter population as early as 1753.

According to oral tradition in Gooseberry Cove, the settlement was first inhabited by fishermen who were stationed on Heart's Ease Island. Gooseberry Cove at that time was used as a wooding and berrying site.

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/GooseberryCoveSouthport