Elliston: Discover Puffins and Root Cellars

Elliston brings together wildlife viewing, hiking trails, and an unusually tangible cultural heritage. Puffins, terrain shaped by erosion, and traditional root cellars each offer a different experience. When planning your trip, you can weigh whether wildlife, outdoor activity, or history should shape your vacation.

Puffins and Hiking Trails

Elliston’s Puffin Viewing Site offers one of the closest land-based opportunities to observe puffins in North America. Thousands of breeding pairs nest there; this wildlife is seasonal. The site is a five-minute walk from the main road. If you want to make puffins the focus of your visit, keep their seasonal nature in mind and check visiting conditions in advance. This land-based viewing opportunity gives wildlife a special place in your trip planning.

The two hiking trails differ considerably in length. The Maberly to Little Catalina Trail starts at Maberly Loop and is 16.5 km long; Maberly is within Elliston. The Klondike Trail is about 5 km long and is located in the northern part of Elliston. If you’re choosing between the two trails, length is a practical planning factor: about 5 km for the Klondike Trail compared with 16.5 km for the Maberly to Little Catalina Trail. Trail conditions can change; check them before your hike.

A Landscape with Distinctive Features

Sandy Cove Beach has a freshwater stream. Elliston’s Mini-Dungeon is a depression in the ground formed by erosion. These are two distinct landscape features: the water of a stream at the beach and a landform shaped by natural erosion. Together with puffin viewing and hiking trails, they add further tangible discoveries to the nature experience, so you don’t have to focus on just one outdoor activity.

Local History and Root Cellars

St. Mary’s Anglican Church in Elliston was built in 1872 and is a registered historic site. The John C. Crosbie Sealers Interpretation Centre presents the historical and cultural context of the seal hunt in Newfoundland and Labrador. The church and the centre offer two different ways to explore history: a specific building with a documented construction date and an interpretation of a cultural subject.

More than 130 root cellars have been documented in Elliston; the number may change as private structures are lost or recorded. These traditional storage structures were used to store root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots. You can visit the root cellars on your own. Check current visiting conditions before you go. Their function brings the tradition of food storage to life and connects the visit with the everyday life for which these structures were used.

Find the Right Vacation Rental for Your Stay

If you’re looking for a vacation rental in Elliston, first decide what you want your stay to focus on. Wildlife viewing and hiking offer a different experience from root cellars and historic sites. When choosing your hiking days, the comparison between about 5 km and 16.5 km gives you a practical guide to trail length.

Discover more destinations: Knights Cove, Clarenville, Bonavista, Greenspond, Port Rexton, Trinity, Sandringham.

Return to the main travel overview: Division No. 7.