Page 46 - Dockside Magazine Muskoka, Summer/Fall 2018

Bob Clarke, Owner
of Clarke Muskoka Realty
Magical isle
Family traditions are made and enjoyed on Beacon Island
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT TURNBULL
Spending time at
the cottage is about traditions – celebrating
old ones, or creating new ones. On Beacon Island, cottagers do a bit of both.
The island on the south end of Lake Rosseau has been a cottage haven since at least the 1920s. Bob Langmaid’s family has owned ten acres of the island, including the original cottage, since the early 1970s.
Langmaid was a teenager when his parents – who had cottaged in the Kawarthas for years – were told by Muskoka friends Dick and Patsy McLaughlin that the property was for sale. “I remember the first time we walked up the stone path. It was just magical,” Langmaid says. “I was entranced by the tall pines, the quiet setting, and the main cottage sitting on higher ground.”
It wasn’t long before the family began developing their own traditions on the island.
Some of those were driven by the nature of the land itself. Beacon Island is a rare piece of property, says Bob Clarke, the realtor who is now listing the property on behalf of the Langmaid family. “With deep water on one area, and a sandy shallow beach on another, it really has a bit of everything,” says Clarke.