Film company barricades at Cape Forchu soon to be removed

Reclamation work underway on land used for film set

The film company that recently wrapped up filming of The Lighthouse on the Leif Ericson trail at the Cape Forchu site is now busy returning the property to its former state.

Greg Shay, interim CAO for the Municipality of Yarmouth, says crews have pretty well stripped all of the buildings and removed them. The scaffolding for the lighthouse will likely be the last thing dismantled.

The ground was disturbed “quite a bit” by the machinery required to put up the temporary buildings and lighthouse for the movie. Reseeding, re-sodding and resurfacing the walkways is in progress.

“It’s going well and will be completed within the next couple of weeks, dependent on the weather,” said Shay.

“The plan is to remove those barricades the end of next week, around the 18th, but they might move a little bit closer to the park itself,” he said.

As there may still be some work left to do at the park, public activity may be restricted at the entrance until remediation has been completed.

Shay says it will likely take a while for natural vegetation to move back in and take over the site as it was before. Film crews have pretty well stripped and removed all of the buildings built for The Lighthouse movie set at the end of the Leif Ericson trail. The scaffolding for the lighthouse will likely be the last thing dismantled.

The film crew began setting up the set at the end of the Leif Ericson park on March 1.

Initially people could still access the parking lot at the property but then a barricade was erected on April 4 near John’s Cove beach, permitting only those involved with the film and the handful of local residents to pass.

In the early days of the production it had been indicated on the barricades themselves that they would remain in place until May 11.

Another set for interior shots was located at the Yarmouth airport in a hangar. After filming finished in Yarmouth, there was some further filming done in Halifax.

While you can’t go to the lighthouse property, you can still “visit” on the Cape Forchu Nova Scotia webcam. The film will be released next spring and stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson.

The film project created an economic boon for the local economy.