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Peggy’s Cove is perhaps Halifax’s most iconic destination, best known for Peggy’s Point Lighthouse and the surrounding fishing village. However, few people know the stories behind the name Peggy’s Cove and who Peggy may have been.
How the village and lighthouse got their names
The first theory is quite simple. The cove was once known as Margaret’s Cove because of its location at the entrance to St. Margaret’s Bay. When abbreviated, it becomes Peggy’s Cove.
The second theory was shared in This Is Peggy’s Cove, a book by 20th-century local artist and sculptor William E. deGarthe.
deGarthe wrote about a schooner that was shipwrecked on Halibut Rock during a storm of sleet and fog on a dark October night in the 1800s, just off the point where the famous lighthouse now stands. He described the ship running aground as high waves washed across its decks. Everyone aboard was lost except a young woman named Margaret, who survived the turbulent seas, reached shore, and was rescued by local residents.
Margaret remained in the community, and people from nearby communities reportedly began saying, “Let’s go see Peggy of the Cove,” Peggy being a nickname for Margaret. According to the legend, the phrase was eventually shortened to Peggy’s Cove.
See Peggy’s story carved in stone
Today, you can see Peggy holding a basket that symbolizes the sea’s bounty in the Bounty section of William E. deGarthe Memorial Monument, carved into a 30-metre-long granite outcropping. You can also visit deGarthe’s former studio, now home to the Neil Depew Gallery, where local artist Neil Depew creates colourful watercolour paintings inspired by the foggy scenery that makes the region so recognizable.
