Dig Those Scallops – Digby, Nova Scotia

Who knew? The small town of Digby, Nova Scotia is the self-proclaimed capital of all things related to scallops. While they may be harvesting scallops only a short distance from a boat from another region, their seafood delicacy is undoubtedly the best or so they say. While some of the locals bristle at Digby scallops being the best, restaurants province-wide highlight Digby scallops on their menus.

We had a scallop lunch on the waterfront in Digby, at the Crows Nest, and I have to say, they were wonderful. You can have scallops many different ways in the “scallop capital”: grilled, fried, bacon-wrapped, or sauteed. You get the idea.

While not as quaint as Annapolis Royal, it is a fine town to take a walk in and it even has its own lighthouse on the waterfront.

Even the trash receptacles remind you of Digby’s claim to fame.

Digby is also the port of the important ferry to and from St. John, New Brunswick across the bay. Save for Halifax, most Nova Scotia towns are small with Digby boasting a population of a little over 2,000 people.

Digby was first established as a town in 1783 by American Loyalists who had fled America. The town is named for Admiral Robert Digby who was a Royal Navy officer. He helped to organize the evacuation of 1,500 loyalists from New York City in 1783. There is a museum named after him in town but it was not open when we visited.

There is also a World War I statue in the main part of town. So far in the Maritimes we have seen more remembrances of the First World War than the Second. Not sure why, it could be a good thing to google.

Like so many small towns in Nova Scotia, Digby has a rich and long history of fishing. The growing season for crops is short and the weather is cool. The local farmers markets have almost exclusively cool season produce. So, with the history of an abundance of seafood, fishing is the heart and soul of the local communities.

If you continue south from Digby, there is skinny peninsula called the Digby Neck. There were some lighthouses that we were able to seek out and countryside to see.

One lighthouse that we did visit was the Prim Point Lighthouse on what is called the Digby Gut. The “gut” is a narrow channel connecting the Bay of Fundy with the Annapolis Basin. This location has been the site of a lighthouse since 1804.

After a fire destroyed the first lighthouse, the replacement had the square shape with the red vertical stripes. The current building was declared a heritage lighthouse in 2015 and is now maintained by the Friends of Point Prim, a non-profit organization.

There is a small park surrounding the lighthouse and it offers wonderful bay views from the rocky shoreline. We spent a good bit of time enjoying the scenery and taking some photos.

Next, as we traveled further along the Digby Neck and were able to see the Boar’s Head Lighthouse from a distance. It was a picturesque view but to visit it you would have to take the ferry to Tiverton, NS. To reach the two islands off of the mainland requires taking two ferries which unfortunately we did not have time to ride. There seems to never be enough time to visit all the interesting places, so our list keeps growing rather than shrinking.

Next we head to the Atlantic Coast of Nova Scotia as our visit gets better and better.