A photograph taken from a rugged mountaintop in the Cape Breton Highlands that shows the ocean, a small island and a shadowy mass has sparked lively debate about whether Newfoundland can be seen from Nova Scotia.
Hiker Wayne McKay of Sydney, N.S., snapped the much-discussed picture on a clear, sunny day in October.
He and his 16-year-old daughter had headed to Meat Cove Mountain Trail for a short but steep hike to enjoy the splendour of the area’s fall colours.
On top of the mountain, McKay said, he took in a panoramic view looking out on nearby St. Paul Island and beyond it to what he asserts is Newfoundland in the distance.
“Immediately I thought it was Newfoundland because of the direction that I was standing,” he said.
“It couldn’t be anything else. There’s no other land mass behind St. Paul Island in that direction.”
McKay photographed the ocean vista and posted it on social media, igniting what he called a “firestorm” of comments that were split almost evenly between people who agreed with him and those who insisted he was wrong.
Among the more than 750 responses were some that read: “Wish I had that good of eyesight” and “Stop believing nonsense” and “Proof that the earth is flat.”
However, others came to McKay’s defence, saying they’ve spotted the Rock from other vantage points on Cape Breton Island.
“I’ve seen Newfoundland myself at the top of Money Point, which is Cape North,” said 81-year-old Hamilton Carter, a longtime sailor who lives in Dingwall, N.S.
“You could see little white dots, which were houses that you couldn’t make out. You’re looking at Cape Ray, basically, and the mountains in back.”
Carter said anyone leaving Dingwall and heading toward Port aux Basques by boat would also see Newfoundland from several kilometres off the coast of Cape Breton.
Tim Webster is a geomatics researcher at Nova Scotia Community College who specializes in the study of maps and measurements of the Earth.
He said it’s “entirely possible” that McKay’s photograph shows Newfoundland in the distance.
“You can see something on the horizon that definitely looks like land,” Webster said.
Meat Cove Mountain has an elevation of about 277 metres above sea level, he said, while Cape Ray, N.L., has an elevation of about 400 metres. The distance between the two is 118 kilometres.
Webster said there is a limit of visibility between two points on the Earth’s surface due to the planet’s curvature and atmospheric conditions.
“If you go up higher, like on top of Meat Cove Mountain and you’re looking out over the ocean at something like around Cape Ray, you start to get into a mountain range there. Then as it’s higher, you have more probability you’re more likely to see it.”
CBC News asked ChatGPT whether Newfoundland could be seen from Cape Breton. The answer was “generally no,” but the artificial intelligence chatbot said in theory Newfoundland can be “barely visible” under perfect atmospheric conditions from very high points.
ChatGPT said there is a particular “line-of-sight” math equation that would make seeing Newfoundland possible, but only if someone were in an ideal location with ideal weather conditions.
When asked to identify the best place to stand in Cape Breton to see Newfoundland, ChatGPT’s answer was Meat Cove or the Cape North Highlands, but it said a person would have to be at an elevated look-off.
Some residents of Newfoundland say they’ve also seen Cape Breton from their side of the Cabot Strait.
Tyler LeFrense is an avid ATV rider who lives in Isle aux Morts, a town about 20 kilometres from Port aux Basques.
LeFrense said he’s spotted Cape Breton multiple times by driving up a road near Cape Ray to Table Mountain.
“The thing is, if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I probably wouldn’t know,” he said.
“You can see the dark area on the horizon. Now with a pair of binoculars, you could make it out perfectly.”
McKay said anyone who doubts him should go see for themselves from Meat Cove Mountain.
“You’ll see it if the sky is clear enough. So I challenge folks to do that and get out there and really enjoy it,” he said.
“People in Newfoundland, do the same. Get up, get on your trails over there because there’s some beautiful spots there too where you can see Cape Breton.”
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