Cruise guide
Cruises at Saugeen Shores: none -- and the lighthouse boat tour that sails instead
The straight answer first: no cruise serves this town. The full answer is better: a nine-guest boat to an 1859 lighthouse island, run by the volunteers who restored it. Here is both, at full length.
The settlement, with its evidence: no cruise serves this town
No cruise ship calls at Saugeen Shores, no cruise departs from Saugeen Shores, and there is no ferry here. That sentence is this page's foundation, printed first and at full strength, because the searches that bring readers to a page like this deserve a straight answer before anything else. Lake Huron's cruise ships work other ports; Georgian Bay's ferries work other harbours. What this town genuinely has on the water is smaller, older and -- for the right traveller -- better: the only permitted boat tour to a lighthouse island, run by volunteers out of Southampton. It gets the full premium treatment below, called by its true name every time: a boat tour.
The evidence standard is the operator's own page. The Marine Heritage Society of Southampton runs the tours from its tour base at 86 Saugeen Street by the harbour (519-797-5862), and its surfaces -- chantryisland.com -- are where the season, the sailings and the booking live. Everything printed here is read against them.
The boat that does sail: the Chantry Island tour, carded
The boat
A small, crewed tour boat with a captain and guide crew, carrying up to nine guests per sailing on the operator's page. This is an intimate, guided excursion -- the opposite of a cruise ship in every particular, and this page never blurs the difference.
The crossing
From the Southampton tour base the boat runs about a kilometre offshore through the Gap to Chantry Island -- roughly 20 minutes on the operator's account, with the guide's shipwreck and Long Dock history on the way out.
The island hour
Ashore, the tour covers the restored 1850s lightkeeper's cottage with its period furnishings and gardens, the replica rescue shed, and the climb -- 107 steps, taken in stages with the guide -- to the lantern room of the 1859 Imperial Tower, for the panoramic view over the sanctuary and the Huron coast.
The terms
The island is a federal migratory bird sanctuary; the Society holds the only permit, visitors stay within the lightstation grounds, and tours run in season from late May to mid-September on the sanctuary's pattern, seven days a week from June to Labour Day on a current tour listing, which carries the tour at $40 plus HST. Pre-booking and pre-payment are required on the published terms. The operator's own surfaces govern every one of these facts at booking time.
The island you are actually visiting
Chantry Island is about 19 hectares of sanctuary a kilometre off Southampton, named by the surveyor Henry Bayfield in 1822 and protected as a federal migratory bird sanctuary since 1957. Its lightstation is one of the six Imperial Towers built around Lake Huron and Georgian Bay in the 1850s; the Chantry tower and its keeper's dwelling were completed in 1859, and both are restored and listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places. The sanctuary waters around it hold nesting great blue herons, great egrets, black-crowned night herons and gulls -- which is why the tour's footprint is deliberately tiny, why no other landing is permitted, and why the nesting season shapes the tour calendar. A visitor who understands that is not being sold a restriction; they are being handed the reason the place survived to be visited.
The shore side of the story sits in Southampton itself: the Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre -- Bruce County's museum, seated in town -- holds Chantry lightstation material in its collection, including its Captivating Coastline exhibit on the museum's accounts. The complete Chantry day chains them: the museum for the context, the boat for the island, the boardwalk for the sunset with the tower on the horizon.
The firewall, printed in full: the big boats are other towns'
The Lake Huron and Georgian Bay boats a visitor might picture -- the MS Chi-Cheemaun ferry crossing to Manitoulin Island, the glass-bottom and island cruise boats to Flowerpot Island and Fathom Five -- sail from Tobermory, at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula in the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula. From Saugeen Shores they are a day trip north, on this guide's day-trips pages, in Tobermory's name, booked with their own operators. The same discipline covers the lake's cruise-ship ports of call: none of them is Saugeen Shores, and no itinerary is printed here pretending otherwise. Each boat on its own dock, each town with its own name: that is the whole rule, and it costs the reader nothing.
Shore time from the Southampton tour base
The museum first
The county museum's marine galleries and Chantry material give the island its context before you sail -- or its consolation on a weather-called day. It is the County's museum, seated in town, and the tour's natural partner.
The shore after
The tour base sits in the harbour quarter: Southampton's beach and boardwalk, Fairy Lake's paths and High Street's shops and tables are all the same short walk. A sailing morning chains naturally into a shore afternoon.
The park day, combined
Pair the boat with the park: MacGregor Point Provincial Park, Ontario Parks' shore and wetland park just south of Port Elgin, is the same outing arc -- island in the morning, boardwalks in the afternoon, sunset on the drive home between the two harbours.
Boarding, honestly
Book ahead, with the Society: tours are pre-booked and pre-paid, groups are capped at about nine, and sailings are weather-called by the operator on Huron's terms -- a cancelled sailing is seamanship, not a failure, and the museum-and-shore day above is the printed alternative. The season is late May to mid-September on the sanctuary's pattern; October travellers -- this guide's build month -- are out of season, and are told so plainly: the tower is read from the Southampton shore until the boats return. Walking and stairs are part of the tour on the operator's account; read its access terms before booking, at the source, like every live fact on this page.
Common questions
Is there a cruise from Saugeen Shores?
No. No cruise ship calls here and no cruise departs here. The boat that sails from this town is the Marine Heritage Society's small guided tour boat to Chantry Island, from Southampton, in season -- a boat tour, printed as one.
What is the Chantry Island tour?
A small-group guided excursion (up to nine guests) from Southampton to Chantry Island: about 20 minutes by boat, the restored 1850s keeper's cottage and gardens, and the 107-step climb of the 1859 Imperial Tower lighthouse, on a federal migratory bird sanctuary. Tours run late May to mid-September on the sanctuary's pattern, pre-booked and pre-paid with the Marine Heritage Society.
How much does the Chantry Island tour cost?
A current tour listing carries it at $40 plus HST, printed here at listing grade. The governing price at booking time is the Marine Heritage Society's own -- read it on chantryisland.com before you travel.
Can you visit Chantry Island on your own boat?
No. The island is a federal migratory bird sanctuary; the Marine Heritage Society holds the only permit to land visitors, and tour visitors stay within the lightstation grounds. Private landings are not permitted.
Where do the Tobermory ferries and cruise boats fit in?
They are Tobermory's -- the Chi-Cheemaun ferry to Manitoulin and the island cruise boats sail from the tip of the Bruce Peninsula, in Northern Bruce Peninsula. From Saugeen Shores they are a day trip north, on this guide's day-trips pages, never a Saugeen Shores departure.
When is the Chantry Island tour season?
Late May to mid-September on the sanctuary's published pattern, with daily sailings from June to Labour Day on current listings. The operator's own surfaces carry the current season's dates and times.
More to explore in Saugeen Shores
The header images on this page are illustrations drawn for Dayfari, not photographs. No verified photograph of the Saugeen Shores places named here (licence and subject checked) could be attested for this version, so those places are illustrated or described in text only, rather than borrowed from another town.
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