Find Your Celtic Heart on Cape Breton Island

Step into a land that flings you into tradition and sends you reeling with every dance. Discover a place that pulls on your heartstrings with one hand and deftly plucks a fiddle with the other. Lose yourself in Highland mountain trails and find your way back by road signs written in a familiar tongue. The Scottish didn’t just settle here, they built a home out of the language, music, and dance that are so distinct to the Gaelic culture. Still looking for your Celtic heart? Find it on Cape Breton Island.

Discover Your Celtic Heart

Discover Your Celtic Heart in Cape Breton

The Celtic Heart of North America represents the amazing Celtic and Gaelic cultural experience on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. We celebrate and share the only living Celtic culture in North America. Whether it‘s dancing to lively fiddle tunes, learning a Gaelic milling song or tracing your roots, we’d love to share our Celtic culture with you.

A green hill overlooking the ocean dotted with houses and a large church

Highland Village

Be captivated by the spirit of the Scottish Gaels at Baile nan Gàidheal. Part cultural centre, part living history museum, it’s the perfect place to learn the mother tongue and see tradition brought to life.

Visit The Highland Village

Colaisde na Gàidhlig / The Gaelic College

Colaisde na Gàidhlig | The Gaelic College

Colaisde na Gàidhlig is an educational non-profit institution, offering year-round programming in the culture, music, language, crafts, customs, and traditions of the immigrants from the Highlands of Scotland. The only institution of its kind in North America, students of all ages and skill levels visit the College every year to study under some of the finest instructors in Nova Scotia Gaelic culture.

Experience Culture

Where to Enjoy Celtic Music this St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is fast approaching and what good is celebrating this festive day without listening and dancing to Celtic music. Luckily Cape Breton Island is home to some of the best Celtic music out there. Let the fiddle get you out on the dance

low fog rolls into wooded valley from the ocean

10 Most Instagrammable Locations on Cape Breton Island

Want to show off your Cape Breton adventure? Read through this blog to find your new favourite instagram hot spot this summer. Trust us, nothing says natural more than a nature photo.

10 Cultural Experiences on Cape Breton Island

Looking to learn more about your family roots? Check out 10 of our cultural experiences that are available to you this summer!

A historical fortress overlooking the ocean

Virtually Tour 3 Museums on Cape Breton Island

3 of Cape Breton Island's museums are here for you to tour virtually from the safety of your own home!

Take a Bite Out of Winter on Cape Breton’s South Coast

Get ready for an amazing South Coast adventure with Alicia Lake! From Isle Madame to St. Peter's Alicia takes you to her favourite spots and introduces you to hidden hiking gems.

Suas e!

The Gaels celebrated their culture not in huge buildings or sculptures but in their songs. Their songs told the stories of the people, the land, good times and bad, love's lost and yearned for.

Live Music

Cape Breton Island and Music go hand in hand. After all, we are the home to the one and only Canada’s Musical Coast, the internationally-renowned music festival, Celtic Colours, and we have a giant fiddle that plays music to us – to keep the ceilidh going 24/7.

Fiddle Around

Arts & Crafts

Celtic culture allows you to fully immerse yourself in the craft with both your hands and heart. Whether you are dancing, knitting, quilting or more your Celtic heart will surely soar.

Get Crafty
Genealogy, History & Language

Céad míle fáilte! A hundred thousand welcomes to the home of your Celtic heart. Here you may discover your roots as you explore historical archives and genealogical records of Cape Breton Island’s museums that are dedicated to cultural research.

Learn Our History