Green Gables is a 19th-century farmstead and a setting for one of Canada’s most celebrated works of literature. It inspired the novelist Lucy Maud Montgomery to write the best-selling book Anne of Green Gables, the story of an orphan girl wrongly sent to work on a farm on Prince Edward Island. Montgomery’s cousins owned Green Gables and her childhood visits motivated her to base her story on the house and its surroundings landscape. Play the audiobook on your drive to the region with the family.
Start your outing in the visitor center and watch a short video about the life of Montgomery, with stories about her upbringing in a humble Cavendish village. Learn how, like the book’s protagonist Anne Shirley, she was also an orphaned child. Read signs that provide historical information about the author, farm and grounds.
Walk through the farmyard buildings and see costumed guides performing traditional farming chores. Meet people dressed as the main character, Anne Shirley, and others from the book such as her adopted parents, siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. Guides narrate favorite adventures and mishaps from the novel.
Enter the Victorian-style house, which was one of Montgomery’s major inspirations. Glimpse inside rooms decorated with period furniture, clothing and ornaments. Admire the house’s weatherboard design, shuttered windows and famed gable roof.
Sit on the benches spread around the farm’s garden and enjoy the encompassing lush green scenery. Follow trails to other sites described in the book. Among these are the Haunted Wood, Lover’s Lane and the Lake of the Shining Waters.
The house and museum are set in the heart of Cavendish, a town on the north-central coast of Prince Edward Island. Use the large free parking lot outside the visitor center. The town of North Rustico is a 10-minute drive to the southeast. Nearby attractions include Cavendish Beach and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! amusement center.
Visit Green Gables any day from May to October. Admission is free. Knowledgeable and entertaining guides conduct free guided tours of the attraction.
