Time Is Running Out for P.E.I.'s Historic Burial Grounds
Some of Prince Edward Island's oldest cemeteries are facing an unusual and irreversible threat — not vandalism or neglect, but the ocean itself. Coastal erosion is steadily washing away the land beneath several of the Island's historic burial grounds, and for some of these sites, it's only a matter of time before they're lost to the sea entirely.
CBC's Cody MacKay has been following the story, documenting how rising water levels and worsening storm patterns are chipping away at the shoreline where generations of Islanders have been laid to rest. These aren't just any graves — many date back well over a century, marking some of the earliest European settlement on the Island and holding deep significance for local families who can trace their ancestry directly to the people buried there.
A Race Against the Tide
Community members, historians, and local volunteers are doing what they can to slow the damage or at least preserve the historical record before it's gone. That includes documenting headstones, transcribing inscriptions before they become illegible, and in some cases physically relocating remains and markers further inland. But as MacKay's reporting makes clear, these efforts amount to buying time rather than solving the underlying problem — the erosion isn't stopping, and for cemeteries built close to the water generations ago, there's ultimately nowhere to retreat to.
This isn't a new phenomenon for the Maritimes, but it's becoming more urgent. Warmer ocean temperatures, more frequent and intense storms, and rising sea levels have all accelerated the pace at which P.E.I.'s famously soft, red-sandstone coastline erodes. Some stretches of shoreline on the Island have receded by meters in just the past few years, a pace that has already forced homeowners, farmers, and now cemetery caretakers to grapple with how much of the coast can realistically be protected.
A Broader Canadian Story
While this story is centred on P.E.I., it speaks to a challenge playing out across much of coastal Canada, from the Atlantic provinces to parts of British Columbia's shoreline. Historic infrastructure, cultural sites, and burial grounds built decades or centuries ago along the coast were never designed with today's rate of erosion in mind. As climate patterns shift, communities across the country are increasingly being asked hard questions about what can be saved, what has to be moved, and what will eventually be surrendered to the water.
For the families connected to these particular P.E.I. cemeteries, the loss is deeply personal. Losing a headstone or a plot isn't just a piece of land disappearing — it's a physical connection to ancestors and community history eroding away, quite literally, one storm at a time.
There's no easy fix on the horizon. For now, those working to protect these sites are focused on preserving what memory and record they can, even as the land itself continues to slip away.
Source: CBC News
