Inspiring a World, L.M. Montgomery Literary Tour

Consistently ranked in the top 2 at TripAdvisor, surrounded by L.M. Montgomery's Cavendish Home National Historic Site and across the road from the Haunted Woods entrance to Green Gables Heritage Place and walking trails. Perfect gathering place for families, "Anne" and Montgomery enthusiasts, adventure seekers, romantic couples, golf and corporate groups. Walking trail passes our entrance connecting you to 15 trail systems. Minutes from all family and adult attractions, restaurants, golf courses, beaches, shopping, hiking and biking trails, deep-sea fishing. Complimentary parking, on-site high-speed Wi-Fi, high definition cable TV, DVDs, movies, heat-pumps for the best air, heated pools, four play areas, soccer, volleyball, basketball, horseshoes, firepits, barbecues, jetted bathtubs, two-person spa tubs, and electric fireplaces.

An executive cottage includes two bedrooms, a full kitchen with dishwasher, a four piece bathroom with an oversize jetted bathtub/shower, living room, deck with deck furniture and propane BBQ grill

Your package will entail a detailed Cavendish walking map and a detailed tour driving map

Montgomery Park 7512 Route 13, Cavendish. Montgomery Park (formerly Cavendish Heritage Park) has been created to commemorate L.M. Montgomery, and to celebrate the Founding Families of Cavendish and the Avonlea Women’s Institute, and to serve as the recommended starting point of The Inspiring World of L.M. Montgomery Literary Tour. A Glimpse of Beauty Bronze Sculpture Conceptual Design by Grace Curtis Sculpture and Casting by Nathan Scott

L.M. Montgomery wrote about a spruce grove, the Haunted Wood, in Anne of Green Gables. The Haunted Wood Trail today leads to Green Gables Heritage Place that includes Green Gables House and Lover’s Lane. In addition, Parks Canada has created a modern multi-media centre designed to interpret the site and aspects of Montgomery’s life and literary legacy.

On August 1, 1909, Montgomery wrote in her journal: "I owe much to that dear lane. And in return I have given it love – and fame. I painted it in my book: and as a result the name of this little remote woodland lane is known all over the world". Many people mistakenly assume that Anne Shirley, the character, and L.M. Montgomery, the author, are exactly the same. The fictional and the real personalities are very different, as Montgomery’s journals prove. Yet in creating fiction, Montgomery did draw from her own experiences. She re-imagined for Anne of Green Gables some of the places she loved, including for example, this farm, then belonging to brother and sister, David and Margaret Macneill. The idea for the primary setting of her novel was, according to Montgomery, “not so much the house itself as the situation and scenery, and the truth of my description of it is attested by the fact that everybody has recognized it.” (L.M. Montgomery’s Journal, January 27, 1911)

Walk the historic site of the Campbell homestead

Discover the stunning beauty of the Island's North Shore on the seven supervised beaches and over 50 km of hiking and cycling trails in PEI National Park. Enjoy daily learning programs for all ages and learn about Island culture through music and stories at evening campfires. The National Park also features unique cultural resources, notably Green Gables, part of L. M. Montgomery's Cavendish National Historic Site,and Dalvay-by-the-Sea National Historic Site.

L.M. Montgomery was born in this house on November 30, 1874, the daughter of Hugh John Montgomery and Clara Macneill Montgomery. Not even two years later, Clara died of tuberculosis at the Macneill homestead in Cavendish. After her mother’s death, Montgomery continued to live with her maternal grandparents, Alexander and Lucy Macneill, where she was inspired to write the world-famous novel, Anne of Green Gables, and numerous other stories and poems. “And here, around a certain corner, is a certain small, yellowish-brown house, close to the road, that I always look at with a kind of fascination, for it is the house where my father and mother lived after their marriage, and where I was born and spent the first year of my life. The years have passed on and each succeeding one has left the little brown house something shabbier than before, but its enchantment has never faded in my eyes. I always look for it with the same eager interest when I turn the corner. (L.M. Montgomery’s Journal, December 31, 1898).

This pond inspired L.M. Montgomery and she uses it in the novel, Anne of Green Gables, to demonstrate Anne’s fondness for renaming beautiful places to make them sound more romantic. Anne gives Barry’s Pond the more fanciful name, the Lake of Shining Waters. “Below them was a pond, looking almost like a river so long and winding was it. A bridge spanned it midway and from there to its lower end, where an amber-hued belt of sand hills shut it in from the dark blue gulf beyond, the water was a glory of many shifting hues—the most spiritual shadings of crocus and rose and ethereal green, with other elusive tintings for which no name has ever been found…. “That’s Barry’s pond,” said Matthew. “Oh, I don’t like that name either. I shall call it—let me see—the Lake of Shining Waters.” (Anne of Green Gables Chapter 2)

On July 28, 1894, after graduating from Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown at 19 years of age, L.M. Montgomery came as a stranger to teach at Bideford #6 School, where she boarded at the parsonage with the local Methodist minister, Mr. Estey and his family. The former site of the school is now a commemorative park which the community and visitors use for picnicking. Two years following her time in Bideford, after going on to study literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Montgomery returned to Western Prince Edward Island to teach at the Belmont School. “[Mr. Estey] is the Methodist minister and his family consists of himself, Mrs. E. and one little girl, Maud, a sweetly pretty little maid of seven, who is one of my pupils. The parsonage is a nice house with pretty grounds, about half a mile from the school.” (L.M. Montgomery’s Journal, July 30, 1894).