St. John's is the oldest city in North America and the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador — a port city shaped by five centuries of Atlantic cod fishing, the Royal Navy and the extraordinary cultural isolation of the Rock. Its abandoned places are unlike anything else in Canada: outport communities evacuated overnight by government resettlement programs, Cape St. Mary's coastal infrastructure and the decaying heritage of a fishing economy that sustained a people and then collapsed. Here are 5 of the best abandoned places in St. John's, selected from our Abandoned Places Map Canada — 2,500+ GPS locations across Canada.
Why St. John's Is a Hidden Gem for Urban Exploration
St. John's urbex landscape is defined by Newfoundland's unique geography and history — the outport resettlement programs that evacuated hundreds of coastal communities, the collapse of the Northern cod moratorium in 1992 that ended 500 years of inshore fishing and the WWII military infrastructure built across the island to guard the North Atlantic convoy routes. No other Canadian city sits at the edge of a landscape this dense with atmospheric abandonment.
1. Great Harbour Deep – Newfoundland Coast — Resettled Outport Community, Saltbox Houses and Fish Flakes Still Standing Above the Atlantic, Accessible by Ferry (Known Location)
Great Harbour Deep on Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula was one of the last communities resettled under Newfoundland's government resettlement programs — a remote outport of saltbox houses, fish flake frames and a small church community accessible only by coastal boat. The residents voted to relocate in the early 2000s; the buildings were left in place, the Atlantic salt air and the Northern Peninsula isolation reshaping them year by year. One of the most powerful examples of Newfoundland outport abandonment in Canada — a complete fishing community standing above the sea with no one left to fish from it. Accessible by ferry from Roddickton.
🔗 Learn more: Wikipedia – Great Harbour Deep
2. Cape St. Mary's Lighthouse Station – Cape St. Mary's, Newfoundland — 1860s Lighthouse and Keeper's Dwelling, Dramatic Atlantic Headland, Accessible via Ecological Reserve Trail (Known Location)
Cape St. Mary's on the Avalon Peninsula's southwestern tip is one of the most dramatic headlands in Atlantic Canada — a 100-metre sea stack rising from the Atlantic where gannets nest in their tens of thousands. The original 1860s lighthouse keeper's station infrastructure, including the keeper's dwelling and the fog signal building, still stands on the headland above the sea stacks, decommissioned when the lighthouse was automated. The combination of the Victorian lighthouse heritage, the nesting gannet colony and the extraordinary Cape St. Mary's landscape makes this one of the most visually spectacular abandoned places in Newfoundland. Accessible via the Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve trail. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
🔗 Also read: Top 5 Best Abandoned Places in Canada →
3. Abandoned Avalon Peninsula Outport – 1800s-1900s Newfoundland Fishing Community, Saltbox Houses and Flake Frames Still Standing Above a Protected Cove (Exclusively on Our Map)
A resettled Avalon Peninsula outport — the original saltbox houses with their distinctive steep-pitched Newfoundland vernacular rooflines, the fish flake frames where split cod was dried in the Atlantic wind and the community wharf pilings still standing in the sheltered cove. The Newfoundland and Canadian government resettlement programs of the 1950s-1970s relocated over 28,000 people from 300 outport communities; the vacated settlements were left intact, their wooden buildings weathering in the salt air at the edge of the Atlantic. One of the most emotionally powerful and most distinctively Canadian abandoned places accessible from St. John's. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
4. Abandoned Newfoundland WWII Radar Station – 1940s Royal Canadian Air Force Coastal Surveillance Complex, Concrete Bunkers Still Standing on an Atlantic Headland (Exclusively on Our Map)
A 1940s RCAF coastal surveillance radar complex on a Newfoundland Atlantic headland — the concrete operations buildings, radar antenna foundations and the access infrastructure of an installation built to monitor the North Atlantic convoy routes during the Battle of the Atlantic. Newfoundland's strategic position at the narrows of the North Atlantic made it the most heavily militarised region in wartime Canada; dozens of RCAF and USN installations were built across the island between 1940 and 1945. Decommissioned after the war and left in the Atlantic coastal vegetation. One of the most historically significant and most dramatically sited abandoned places near St. John's. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
5. Abandoned Newfoundland Fish Processing Plant – 1950s-1970s Northern Cod Plant, Processing Floor and Cold Storage Still Standing, Bonavista Peninsula (Exclusively on Our Map)
A 1950s-1970s Northern cod processing plant on the Bonavista Peninsula — the original processing floor with period filleting and freezing equipment still partially intact, the cold storage building and the company wharf infrastructure above the Atlantic. The 1992 Northern cod moratorium ended 500 years of inshore cod fishing in Newfoundland overnight; the processing plants that had served the industry for decades were simply abandoned. One of the most historically loaded and most distinctively Newfoundland abandoned places accessible from St. John's — the physical evidence of the moment a way of life ended. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
Safety Tips
- Atlantic conditions: Newfoundland coastal weather changes with extreme speed — always check marine forecasts and never approach cliff edges or exposed headlands in deteriorating conditions
- Structural decay: Atlantic salt air accelerates wood decay dramatically — always treat every floor as potentially compromised in any wooden outport structure
- Never explore alone — always bring at least one other person and always tell someone your exact destination
The urbex code applies everywhere: "Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints."
❓ FAQ
What is the most famous abandoned place near St. John's?
Great Harbour Deep — one of the last Newfoundland communities resettled under government relocation programs, its saltbox houses and fish flake frames still standing above the Atlantic on the Northern Peninsula. Accessible by ferry from Roddickton and one of the most powerful examples of outport abandonment in Canada.
What were the Newfoundland resettlement programs?
Federal and provincial programs running from the 1950s through the 1970s that relocated over 28,000 people from approximately 300 remote outport communities to larger service centres. The government provided financial incentives for communities to vote for relocation; the vacated settlements were left intact. The programs remain deeply controversial in Newfoundland.
What caused the 1992 cod moratorium?
Decades of industrial trawler fishing by international fleets — and the Canadian inshore and offshore fleet — collapsed the Northern cod stock from an estimated 7 million tonnes in the 1960s to near-extinction by 1992. Federal Fisheries Minister John Crosbie announced the moratorium on July 2, 1992; 35,000 fishers and plant workers lost their livelihoods overnight in the largest single-industry layoff in Canadian history.
🎯 Summary
St. John's abandoned places range from a resettled outport where saltbox houses stand above the Atlantic with no one left to fish, to a Victorian lighthouse keeper's station on the most dramatic seabird headland in Canada and cod processing plants abandoned when the fishery ended in 1992. Each of these 5 abandoned places in St. John's captures a different layer of Newfoundland's extraordinary and heartbreaking Atlantic history.
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