A Tiny Trip to Tiny Topsail Beach

Wayne visits Topsail Beach

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Sources 

 ¦ “Bell Island (Newfoundland and Labrador),” Wikipedia, July 27, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Island_(Newfoundland_and_Labrador)  ¦ 

 ¦ “Little Bell Island Formation,” Wikipedia, June 24, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Bell_Island_Formation ¦ 

 ¦ NTV, “Webcam - St. Philip’s – Bell Island,” September 6, 2025, https://ntvplus.ca/pages/webcam-stphilips-bellisland ¦ 

 ¦ William James Reid, “A History of Kelly’s Island and Little Bell Island, Conception Bay, Newfoundland,” 1973, History Paper, Memorial University, https://catalogue.nlpl.ca/client/en_US/default/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ILS:89256/one?qu=Little+Bell+Island+%28Nfld.%29+--+History.&te=ILS [not seen] ¦ 

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Transcript

Hi, I’m Wayne Jones. Welcome to Newfoundland Boy, a podcast about the Canadian province of Newfoundland. This is episode 44: “A Tiny Trip to Tiny Topsail Beach.”

A few of the episodes of this podcast have described road trips I’ve taken, mostly alone but sometimes with a friend, where I’ve visited places that were a fair distance from my hometown of St. John’s. But there are lovely places to see in or near the city that just take up an afternoon.

One of these is Topsail Beach. It’s less than 20 km away and essentially west of the city and just a bit south. And a little explanation of the naming. Topsail Beach is not a community but it is a beach within the town of Conception Bay South. There used to be a community named Topsail (no Beach in the name) but now it’s all amalgamated.

It’s a nice short run and when you start seeing the signs you should slow down, because the little road that leads down to the beach is easy to miss. Once you take the turn, you squiggle through a neighbourhood of houses, all kind of darkened because of the tree cover. These are not a special area: they just happen to be houses on the way to the beach. Within a few minutes you are there and it’s like you’ve come out of a tunnel and there’s this huge vista of light and water and islands and, of course, beach just right in front of you. There’s a circular parking lot and it was easy for me to find a spot because it was Labour Day.

The view is fantastic. You’re basically looking out at the Atlantic Ocean, or more specifically at the east coast of Conception Bay (the bay not the town). The first thing I noticed were these three land masses in the water, one seeming pretty huge, and the others less so. The large one is Bell Island. It’s a former iron-mining island but the place is still populated by about 2,000 people. From the efforts I make to try to keep up with the local news, in Newfoundland and particularly on the Avalon Peninsula, I know that one of the ongoing issues of frustration is the ferry service which goes directly from Bell Island to the town of Portugal Cove-St. Philips. It’s only a 20-minute ride but the vessels have frequent mechanical breakdowns that throw off the schedule, and overall they are older vessels that are not big enough to handle the capacity and demand for the service. By the way NTV, the island broadcaster, maintains a live webcam of the ferry (and in fact they maintain several live cams across the island). See the show notes for details.

Just south of Bell Island are two smaller islands, Little Bell Island and Kellys Island. These are much smaller: Bell Island is 34 square km, Little Bell Island is less than a square km, and Kellys Island is about 3 square km. These are not inhabited but are accessible by boat.

The water is beautiful to look out on and the beach is rocky, not treacherously or sharply rocky but with stones instead of sand for the most part. There is a level of grassed land separating the parking lot from the beach, and there you can find benches to sit on. It was a cool day and so I sat for a while facing the setting sun, getting some warmth and solitude.

All around me though were families with children on the beach, playing on it, throwing rocks, or digging near the edge of the water. Many people though tend to just park in their cars and sit in comfort to admire the view. I’m not sure, but I think I noticed at least one woman with hiking gear on heading onto a trail that led away from the parking lot.

And that’s all for this episode. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy the show, consider giving me a like or adding a comment on Apple or Spotify. And please join me again next Saturday.