Cape St. Mary, one of six seabird ecology reserves protected by the Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Park System, is one of the largest, most accessible and spectacular seabird rookeries in the world. Located at the southwestern tip of the Avalon Peninsula, a four-pronged land mass connected by a narrow strip of land to the rest of the island, the reserve protects hundreds of thousands of birds who breed and nest on the islands and coastal cliffs of this rugged landscape. The unfolding of a complex and vivid history that began in the 1500’s, includes a most interesting account of the struggle to build and maintain a lighthouse at Cape St. Mary to guide navigators past its formidable headlands.