Mabou, Nova Scotia


Mabou is an unincorporated community in the Municipality of the County of Inverness on the west coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. The population in 2011 was 1,207 residents. It is the site of The Red Shoe pub, Beinn Mhàbu, the An Drochaid Museum, and Glenora Distillers.

History

The name Mabou is thought to derive from Mi'kmaq name Malabo, shortened from Malabokek, meaning "place where two rivers meet". It is also thought to mean "Shining Waters" or "Sparkling Waters". In Canadian Gaelic it is called An Drochaid, meaning "The Bridge".
French maps from the 1700s include names such as "Ance a la Peinture", "Harve a la Peinture", "Harve Pantur", and "Deguats de la peches des Basques". These names are denoted on what would be considered the Mabou inlet/harbour. Maps denote "Cap Mabou" separately from the inlet/harbour; however, the location varies with it being shown both to the south and the north.

Image:Church of Mabou, Nova Scotia, Canada.JPG|thumb|240px|right|St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Mabou
In 1841, the first resident Roman Catholic priest, Maighstir Alasdair Mòr was assigned to Mabou, where he was seen as, "a veritable chieftain and patron of poets." Fr. MacDonald was also a very near kinsman to many local Gaelic-speaking pioneers, as he was 8th in descent from Iain Dubh MacDhòmhnaill, the 1st Tacksman of Bohuntine for Clan MacDonald of Keppoch.
In 1846, a series of bad harvests caused by the same blight as the Great Irish and Highland potato famines caused an exodus of Gaels from Mabou to Antigonish County.
According to Marcus Tanner, "The Catholic clergy in rural west Cape Breton included notorious enemies of the fiddle, such as Father Kenneth MacDonald, who conducted a local war with the music-makers in the 1860s and the 1870s. His campaign met with little success, however, and Cape Breton never saw the ceremonial burning of fiddles and bagpipes, as happened in Skye under the instigation of the famous blind catechist Donald Munro."
During the last quarter of the 19th century, according to historian Fr. Vincent Yzermans, the town of Holdingford, Minnesota was founded by Catholic Canadian Gaelic-speaking immigrants from Sight Point near Mabou. For this reason, Holdingford was originally called, "The Scotch Settlement", but now proudly describes itself as, "The Gateway to Lake Wobegon", after the fictional Central Minnesota town created by novelist and former radio host Garrison Keillor.
During the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century Mabou's primary economic activity centered around gypsum and coal mines with several collieries located in the surrounding area. In 1865 plans were undertaken to modify the Mabou Inlet mouth. This entailed blocking of the existing channel and dredging a new and deeper channel on the north side of the inlet. This was to facilitate improved ship access to transport gypsum.
The Inverness and Richmond Railway opened in 1901 to connect the mines in Mabou and Inverness to wharves in Mabou and Port Hastings.
Mining activity ceased following World War II and the railway was abandoned during the late 1980s and is now a snowmobile and ATV trail.
Today Mabou is primarily a fishing port for a small fleet of lobster boats. It also hosts a high school serving central Inverness County.
In 2021, Mabou became important to the ongoing language revival efforts for Canadian Gaelic when opened there as the first Gaelic-medium primary school in North America.

Geography

The community is located at the head of an inlet off the Gulf of St. Lawrence named "Mabou Harbour" and is surrounded by low mountains which are part of the Creignish Hills.
The main community of Mabou is on the southern edge of the Cape Mabou Highlands and is at the confluence of the South West Mabou River and the Mull River.

Climate

Famous residents