Grates Cove

Grates Cove is stunningly beautiful and steeped in history. Take Route 70 to the very end. Grates Cove sits on the tip of the Bay de Verde Peninsula (part of the Avalon Peninsula) just past the towns of Bay de Verde and Red Head Cove.

You drive down a steep hill to get into town. On your right you will find a boardwalk, viewing platform and interpretive signs, to get you oriented. There are several trails in town including; Country Rock Trail, Rock ‘n Roll Trail, Yellow Rock Road and Big Hill Boardwalk.

Rock Walls

The main attraction that draws tourists to Grates Cove are the rock walls. The site is marked by a Government of Canada Plaque. Part of the description as follows:

This walled landscape represents a now rare, but once common strategy of making subsistence gardens in Newfoundland outports. Across this rocky terrain overlooking the sea, a combination of thrown, piled and stacked stone walls sets apart numerous fields from the common. Land, taken in and owned by custom to produce vegetables and hay, was worked by families in rhythm with the demands of the fishery.

You will see rock walls in other parts of Newfoundland, but nowhere as extensive and prominent as in Grates Cove.

Cod Fishery

Before the closing of the cod fishery, Grates Cove routinely brought in more cod per capita of any Newfoundland community. Nearby Baccalieu Island was named for the Portuguese word for codfish, which was bacalhao.

Newfoundland Railway

Grates Cove Stone