Inverness

Inverness Shean Trail Section 5

Traveling north on the Inverness Shean and final section of the Celtic Shores Coastal Trail from Blackstone about 4.5 kms to Kenloch you will experience unsurfaced but easily ride-able coal dust covered treadway. It is anticipated that this last section of unsurfaced trail will be completed in 2013. Shortly after crossing Hwy# __at Kenloch you will find a rest area along the shores of Lake Ainslie.

Barite was once mined at Scotsville and transported across the lake by barge to be shipped by rail to market. Shortly after you will come to Hwy ___ at Kenloch where there once was small settlement near the train station with an Inn, Restaurant and Store.

Furthering along and crossing the Deepdale Road you will come to the Deepdale trestle. It is the last of 26 bridges but is definitely the “grand daddy” of all of them at over 300’ long and almost 100’ feet in the air. A local interpretive panel displays in picture form the former wooden and present steel structure that carried trains across for almost a century.

The last 2 kilometers will bring you to Hwy # 19 at Inverness Village and a spectacular ending to the trail overlooking Inverness Harbour, St. Georges Bay and the new ocean side Cabot Links Golf Course. Interpretive signage, a picnic shelter and public parking are found at the end trailhead near Beach Road #1 and the Miner’s Museum. From either Hwy #19 or Beach Road #1you can access many amenities and attractions that this former coal town has to offer. You can find a local Visitor Information Centre for directions and advice on what best for you to see and do.

Amenities include six food establishments, three motels, cottages for rent, two fuel and automotive stations, several gift shops, a grocery cooperative, three convenience stores, a laundry mat, a harness racing track. Down Beach Road #1 to Inverness wharf you can access fresh lobster, crab and fish in season, boat cruise and charters, a beachside café, and spectacular white sand beaches featuring the one of the best weathered beach glass found anywhere. There is able parking, a spectacular two kilometer ocean side boardwalk, and a supervised beach.
The Cabot Links Golf course is the recent local attraction getting the most local and international buzz. Never is the game of golf more appealing than when a course is set in a rugged, oceanfront landscape, on links land running firm and fast. Cabot Links is Canada’s only authentic links where the holes spread out between the sea and the village of Inverness. Every hole offers an ocean view and five holes play directly adjacent to the beach. Celti music can be found daily at the Cabot Links restaurant and at the Glenora Distillery. Weekly Ceilidhs can be found at the local halls and the Bear Paw Gift Shop. During the summer harness racing draws enthusiastic crowds Sundays and Wednesdays. The Centre of the Arts feature’s a schedule of events and displays. And don’t forget to visit the Miner’s Museum to gain an appreciation for the former coal mine town’s rise and demise, as well as a taste of the Celtic cultural connections of the area.

About Inverness Village

Located on the west coast of Cape Breton Island fronting the St Georges Bay in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Inverness sits astride a small coal seam which was exploited from the late 19th century to the mid-late 20th century, beginning with a mine opened by Mackenzie and Mann in the 1890s after they acquiring the Inverness and Richmond(I&R) Railway. Several more mines opened in Port Hood, Mabou, and Dunvegan during the early 20th century, but many closed following World War II with the last one closing in the early 1990s following a fire.
The community was established in 1904. It experienced economic hardship since large scale industrial coal mining ended; the local economy is now based mainly on fishing and tourism. Inverness Raceway was established in 1926, and harness races are held twice weekly between May and October.[7] North America’s only true link’s 200-acre (0.81 km2) golf course named Cabot Links is located on the former coal mine and over looks beautiful sandy beaches.