Father Duffy's Well Provincial Park

On the way to…

1. YYT → Salmonier Nature Park →

   A roadside spring directly on the line the drive follows — OpenStreetMap tags the road beside it (way/1305102570) as Salmonier Line, ref 90, two lanes, asphalt. It is named for Father James Duffy, the Irish priest appointed first parish priest of St. Mary's in 1834, who spent the years that followed walking back and forth to the courthouse in St. John's over a dispute with the local merchant's agent. The legend, as Product of Newfoundland tells it, is that on one of those walks he tapped a rock with a branch and water rose from dry ground; it has run ever since. The Knights of Columbus turned the site into a roadside grotto in the 1930s.

   Stopping here adds about 1 min and 0.1 km to that drive (57 min door to door).

2. YYT → Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve →

   A named roadside stop on the Salmonier Line, and — in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography's words — the resting place of James W. Duffy on his many journeys between St. Mary's and St. John's. Duffy, an Irish priest brought to Newfoundland by Bishop Fleming, decided in the 1830s to build a new church at St. Mary's on ground the local merchant company's agent objected to, and built it. After a crowd dismantled and burned the fish flake blocking the way to it, Duffy and others were charged, and the case dragged through the courts at St. John's — journey after journey — until the crown abandoned the prosecution.

   Stopping here adds about 1 min and 0.1 km to that drive (2h 47m door to door).

3. Irish Loop →

   A roadside spring directly on the line the drive follows, named for Father James Duffy, the Irish priest appointed first parish priest of St. Mary's in 1834. The Knights of Columbus turned the site into a roadside grotto in the 1930s. ParksNL classes it as day use; it is a stop measured in minutes, not hours.

   Stopping here adds about 0 min and 0 km to that drive (4h 18m door to door).