Newfoundland and Labrador
Flatrock
The Holy Grotto. If you have not visited this yet, add it to your places to go.
The coastline here isn’t like the rest of Newfoundland. The rock lies down in flat layers and runs straight out into the Atlantic, shelf after shelf, until the water takes it. You can walk down and put your feet in the ocean.
Drive through and the sea stays with you nearly the whole way.
People have fires down on the rocks. And go and see the Grotto — the parish built it in 1954, and Pope John Paul II prayed there in 1984, then blessed the boats in the harbour from the lookout across the road.
That lookout is the thing I’d send anyone to. Most of the town, and a great wide stretch of ocean, and you can see all of it from your car. No hike, no mountain, no need to be able to walk far. Just pull up.
Worth the trip if you’re anywhere near St. John’s.
Population 1,722 (2021 Census).
Where everything is
The boundary of Flatrock, and every place written up inside it. Tap a pin for the photograph.
Directions to everything showing
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Census Subdivision Boundary File, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.