Woody Points of Interest Walking Tour: Fish, Fire and Fjords

Woody Point, on the shores of Bonne Bay in Gros Morne National Park, has been shaped by centuries of fishing, fire, hardship, and reinvention. On this walking tour, you’ll discover how a seasonal fishing outpost grew into a community that rebuilt itself time and again - both literally and culturally. You’ll also hear how a town that once sent fish to Europe now welcomes visitors from around the world.

The tour begins at the Cenotaph on Water Street where the names carved in stone include the first Newfoundlander to fall in the First World War. From there, you’ll walk past merchant homes built in the Queen Anne style after a devastating fire destroyed 58 buildings in 1922, and hear how workhouse boys from Dorset, England became the founding Roberts family whose descendants still shape the community today.

Along the way, you’ll pass the Woody Point Lighthouse, a classic red-and-white tower that has guided fishermen home since 1919, and learn how lobster - once considered survival food rather than a delicacy - helped families build a life here.

Towering above the bay are the Tablelands, their rust-coloured rock formed from the Earth’s mantle pushed to the surface nearly 450 million years ago. The tour ends at the Merchant Warehouse, a restored waterfront building where goods were once stored and now music calls locals and visitors to enjoy each other's company. .

On this 60-minute walk, you’ll have a chance to:

• Hear how four workhouse boys from Dorset, England became the founding Roberts family of Woody Point
• Learn about the 1938 Bonne Bay “Riot,” when seven local men were acquitted after protesting Depression-era relief payments of just six cents a day
• Hear how the Spanish flu arrived in Bonne Bay aboard a Danish vessel docked at Taylor’s WharfDiscover how the Heritage Theatre evolved from an Orangemen’s Lodge into a nationally recognized literary festival venue
• Learn about Galliott Studios, a pottery studio and coffee shop run by a sixth-generation Roberts descendant
• Explore the geology of the Tablelands, one of the few places on Earth where exposed mantle rock can be seen at the surface

This is Woody Point - come hear its tales of fish, fire and fjords!