Contemporary Quarters in Nova Scotia’s South Shore

Contemporary Quarters in Nova Scotia’s South Shore

Ditch the Motel 6 and check into an award-winning architect’s modern retreat.

The Shobac Cottages.

The Shobac Cottages.

The first glimpse of the Shobac property – located in Upper Kingsburg, Nova Scotia – is awe-inspiring, with its immaculate grounds, ethereal ocean views, and the contrast of the modern architecture set against the spacious footprint of the surrounding farmland.

Designed and constructed by Nova Scotia native Brian MacKay-Lyons of the internationally acclaimed and award-winning firm MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, the Shobac property is a site that has been passed from hand to hand for centuries. Located on the cliffs overlooking the LaHave Estuary, named by French explorer Samuel De Champlain, the site was ideal for making his first landfall in the new world in 1604 where it was established as an Acadian fishing/farming village. Later it was settled by the German, Swiss and French Protestants for agricultural use in 1755. Though the community was abandoned in the mid-20th century, it did however continue as an in-shore fishing port until the 1970s. In 1988, Brian MacKay-Lyons began re-clearing the land, cultivating it to re-create an agricultural village at the edge of the world.