Vancouver Pilgrimage. The Lighthouse

Address:  Lighthouse Park. 4902 Beacon Ln, West Vancouver, BC V7W 1K5

The Lighthouse has become an iconic image for Motherland Fort Salem fans.  It started as Scylla’s childhood safe place, but came to represent a place of safety more generally.  We see it for the first time in episode 1.06 Up is Down, when Raelle takes a lot of Salva and goes to the Lighthouse to try and find Scylla.

Researching for my trip to Vancouver, this was somewhere I wanted to find.  Despite a lot of internet searching, I couldn’t find an exact match.  The lighthouse at Lighthouse Park looked close, but not exactly right.  But there was almost no decent photos of it.  There was only one option – I had to go there and see for myself.

Lighthouse Park is not the easiest place to get to by public transport.  Initially Google Maps couldn’t even find a way to get me there by public transport.  But I managed to sort it out eventually and arrived there.  I love the way Vancouver numbers the bus stops, you know exactly where you are and when your stop is approaching.  It is quite remote and I was the only person who got off the bus there.  Admittedly, it was raining. 

North Vancouver has a lot of hills, some of them very steep hills.  Lighthouse Park is a place where you need good walking boots, good mobility and lots of stamina.  You will be climbing and going over very uneven ground.  Not for the faint hearted. 

They even warn you what to do if you come across bears.  Luckily I didn’t, but I had photographed the advice, just in case.

You can’t actually get to the lighthouse, but there is a look out point where you can see it.  So, that was where I headed first. 

The sign posting is very good.  Otherwise I would have been hopelessly lost.

Look what I found. 

You couldn’t get any where near it and couldn’t get a full length shot.  I imagine you could get a shot from a boat.  But this was the best I could actually do.

Fortunately, there was a sign that showed what it really looked like. 

This may be an old photo – and you can see the rain – but it shows that this is not OUR Lighthouse.  I don’t know if the lighthouse used in the screen version of Motherland Fort Salem is a real lighthouse or something created specially, but it is not in Vancouver.

However, the beach where Abigail and Tally found Raelle is real, and the geology and vegetation matched up, so I went to hunt for that.  From the on-screen filming, if it was one of the bays at Lighthouse Park, it would have to be one of the bays to the east of the actual lighthouse.  So, I had a snack, drank water and set off for a climb through the woods. 

There were black squirrels.  In the UK we have lots of grey squirrels and some red squirrels, and even the occasional albino squirrel, but not black ones.  I took lots of photos of squirrels, actually more than of the lighthouse.  Having an adventure.

More local hazards.  Personally I think broken legs and sprained ankles were a bigger danger.  I was very glad I had good walking boots.

I visited the beaches at Eagle Point and Starboat Cove. 

The black sand in the area is evidence that the sand is iron based, which comes from volcanic activity in the past.  There is evidence of the volcanic past all around North Vancouver.

So, I ruled out the Lighthouse and didn’t find the bay.  But that beach in 1.06 is around there somewhere.  It needs someone with a car to go bay hopping, probably starting with the bays in the direction of Horseshoe Bay Park.  If I could be trusted to drive on the wrong side of the road, I would start investigating around the Eagle Island area coves and bays.  Or track down the person responsible for location filming on Motherland Fort Salem!