To arrive at this white-sided, red-roofed Tudor retreat is to drive past salt-sprayed fishing villages, up the tight-turned, mountainside ledge of Cape Smokey, into Cape Breton Highlands National Park, and onto a rocky peninsula where the Atlantic Ocean crashes endlessly on granite cliffs.
For sheer visual beauty, it’s hard to top your first sight of Keltic Lodge at the Highlands. It rises atop seaside cliffs just off the Cabot Trail and not far from the reason most guests make the drive, to play the renowned Highlands Links Golf Course.
Over the winter, new owners GolfNorth Properties began restoring the retreat with a much-needed $5-million revamp. The resort, which began as a summer home more than a century ago for American industrialist Henry Clay Corson, has been welcoming guests since the 1940s and is now in the midst of a major renaissance as renovations of the historic main lodge, clubhouse and cottages will continue during the off season. There’s also talk of transitioning the resort to a year-round destination.
What visitors will find this summer are ramped interiors – several buildings were rehauled to the bare bones, spiffed up with wider staircases, new furnishings, new heating and cooling and spa-like bathrooms. A new mantra – if the view’s so grand, then guests should soak it in – is the focus of the reno.
Location, location
With a canopy of white birch trees dotting the grounds and soothing surf crashing below on sandy Ingonish Beach, guests feel immediate peace at this castle on the cliffs. “It’s pretty darn hard to beat the setting,” manager Graham Hudson said, sweeping an arm to indicate the rugged beauty of Middle Head Peninsula, backed by the Cape Breton Highlands and stretching into the Atlantic Ocean. Renovations inside and out took full advantage of the pristine views, adding outdoor patios and floor-to-ceiling windows that have guests gaping at the coastal wilderness. Echoing the main lodge, building exteriors were matched with white sides and red roofs and guests settle into the red Adirondack chairs scattered around the sprawling 200 hectares, placed near vistas to make you weep.
Design
From my perch in Corson House, recipient of the lion’s share of updates, I prop my head on my pillow and watch morning unfold from three oversized windows. Gulls swoop and a lone lobster boat steams into the steely Atlantic as dawn breaks broad over jagged green headlands.
Like the earthy surroundings, the 40 upscale hotel rooms and six suites in this building are all muted taupes and browns; they forgo flash and glitz to capture the view as the most important part of the room.
Says Hudson: “You have to walk in and say, ‘Wow!’” The neighbouring Ceilidh Hall, a popular wedding venue, is brightened with 80 feet of windows fronting an expansive deck, gazebo and landscaped lawn.
On the bay’s other side, one-time staff quarters are now gleaming, roomy one- and two-bedroom executive suites with pillowy beds and beckoning outdoor patios, a golfer’s haven steps from the fairway.
If I could change one thing
As bucolic as the setting is, getting into our room proved a bit of a hassle. We arrived hot and tired after a morning sail and bird-watching expedition and our spirits sagged fast when we couldn’t check in on time, nor was our room ready when we returned 90 minutes later and queued up once more at an understaffed front desk.
Whom you’ll meet
Groups of golfers in polo shirts and khaki shorts flock here to play Highlands Links, a design masterpiece and, according to ScoreGolf magazine, the No. 3 public course in Canada, one its designer Stanley Thompson proudly proclaimed his “mountains and ocean” course. Music fans chat up talented Cape Breton bards and balladeers who jam nightly in the Arduaine Restaurant.
Come sunset, don’t be surprised to see newlyweds and anniversary couples strolling hand-in-hand on meandering footpaths overlooking the dramatic, misty shorelines.
Eat in or eat out
Seafood is king here. And it doesn’t get much fresher than seeing the fishing boats that catch your dinner bobbing each morning in the harbour. Lobster is de rigeur in the main lodge’s long, window-studded Purple Thistle Dining Room, but consider tucking in to delicate line-caught halibut plucked from these fresh, clear waters, pan seared and baked to perfection with lobster ravioli, lobster broth and pico de gallo by Cape Breton chef Daryl MacDonnell.
But Atlantic grass-fed beef tenderloin with portobello mushrooms, foraged herbs and foie butter red wine demi won’t disappoint either. For dialled-down dining, the Arduaine Restaurant, with its own soaring water views just down the pathway, serves rich chowders, burgers and hot turkey sandwiches in a pub atmosphere.
Best amenity
Solitude and scenery are morning indulgences when you sink into the outdoor hot tub at the full-service spa, which opens at 6 a.m., overlooking the cliff edge. I made it a point to rise early and, as the only guest, was rewarded with glorious solo, serene views of Cape Smokey and the sandy shores of Ingonish Beach.
Also appealing is the raw beauty of Middle Head Trail, a Parks Canada trail that begins and ends at the lodge. The nearly four-kilometre rolling foot path once linked a country estate and summer fishing shacks. Hikers follow a long, narrow peninsula separating North and South Bay, ending on headland cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, Cape Smokey and Ingonish Island, where they can sit and listen to the waves.
The Keltic Lodge at the Highlands, 383 Keltic Inn Rd., Ingonish Beach, N.S., kelticlodge.ca; 120 rooms from $300.
The writer was a guest of the resort.