Fairy Hole Cave, Victoria County

In Mi’kmaq culture, the Fairy Hole cave in Kellys Mountain is believed to be Kluscap’s (Glooscap’s) final home before he left the Earth World behind. – The Natural History of Nova Scotia

The Fairy Hole, or Gluskap’s Cave, located at Cape Dauphin on Cape Breton Island. This site is sacred to the Mi’kmaq people.

How Niscaminou Made Gluskap

Long ago, on the great bold cliffs of Cape North, on the eastern side of Cape Breton, Niscaminou – the Very Great, made Gluskap of the good red earth of Cape Breton, and breathed on him until he lived. Then, when he had made him and he breathed, Niscaminou willed that Gluskap should wait on the lonely cliffs seventy times seven days until he came again.

“Until I come, wait on this mountain,” Niscaminou told Gluskap; and Gluskap waited, lying on the cliffs as Niscaminou had made him, with his head toward the rising sun, his feet toward the setting sun; his arms flat on the earth and stretched toward the south and north.

He waited through long dark nights when the lone gull cried; he waited through the long, brittle dry days of summer, and in the snow of winter. The wind came and the rain; still he waited. The hills turned from palest blue to indigo and were black and bare before the snow covered them with white. Still Niscaminou did not come; and Gluskap waited. The land turned soft with spring; the sea birds laid their eggs. Still Gluskap waited. Then, at noonday, when the red cliffs were blue with harebells, Niscaminou came again to Cape North, and from the dew that clings to rocks he made an old woman to care for Gluskap’s wigwam. “Noogumich, Grandmother,” Gluskap called her.

Still Niscaminou willed that Gluskap should wait on the great bold bluff of Cape North until the noon of another day, when he came again to the mountain, and from the sea foam where it was white and thick at the foot of the cliffs, he made a little man to wait on Gluskap. Nataoa-nsem, my sister’s son, Little Marten Gluskap called him.

Still Niscaminou willed that Gluskap should wait on Cape North, and with the next noonday, when the sun was high in the sky, came the mother of the Mi’kmaq out of the great beautiful earth of Cape Breton.

When Niscaminou had made old grandmother, and Nataoa-nsem, my sister’s son, Little Marten, and the mother of the Mi’kmaq, Gluskap left Cape North and went over the mountains until he came to Fairy Hole on the lovely Bay of St. Ann. There he pitched his wigwam and lived for many long winters. Local Mi’kmaq Legends