Coal Island at Sunrise – A Quiet Look at Esquimalt Harbour’s Forgotten Heritage
Coal Island is one of those places you see a hundred times without ever really seeing it.
If you live in Colwood or View Royal, you probably drive past it every day without a second thought. I certainly do. I can even see a corner of it from my condo and never truly understood the scale or story behind those old brick buildings on the water.
Eventually, curiosity wins.
So I took the Air 3S out on a quiet morning for a simple sunrise flight to see Coal Island from a different perspective.
Below is the video from that morning.
A Small Island With a Long Memory
Cole Island is part of a chain of small islets tucked into Esquimalt Harbor. From land you mostly see:
a single brick building
a bit of rooftop
some trees
and a shape you register only subconsciously on your commute
From the air, that picture changes.
You can see the entire complex — the rows of old munitions magazines that served first the Royal Navy and later the Royal Canadian Navy. These buildings date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, and thanks to ongoing restoration work, they’re still standing in surprisingly good condition.
Most people don’t realize the island is publicly accessible by water. You can’t walk there, and you can’t wander inside the buildings, but kayakers and small boats often pull up on its shorelines to explore the perimeter.
It’s not a provincial park.
It’s not private land.
It’s simply one of those in-between heritage places that quietly exist until someone goes looking.
A Sunrise Flight
The morning I filmed this, the conditions were overcast but still. Not the big dramatic sunrise we sometimes get here, but something softer — that half-light glow where the water turns into a sheet of glass.
The flight itself is simple:
A low approach over the ocean
A slow rise revealing the tree line
A counter-clockwise sweep showing the brick magazines catching first light
Then a long orbit around the quiet, modern side of the island most locals never see
What struck me most is how much bigger the island feels from the air.
From land, you’d never guess the scale of those structures or that the island has multiple buildings, docks, and active maintenance.
Why This Place Matters
Coal Island is not a headline location.
It’s not a tourism magnet.
It’s not the kind of place you put on a postcard.
But that’s exactly why it matters.
It’s part of the quiet, everyday geography that shapes the Westshore — something you drive past on your way to work, something you glance at without thinking, something that quietly holds a bit of our local history.
This is the kind of place Vancouver Island Drones wants to document.
Not the obvious landmarks, but the smaller ones we’ve all half-noticed, half-forgotten.
The Start of a New Series
This video marks the first entry in Unique & Forgotten Vancouver Island — an ongoing series exploring local places that deserve a second look.
Coal Island is just the beginning.
Upcoming pieces will include:
Willows Beach at sunrise
Ogden Point mornings
Six Mile heritage shots
Aylard Farm
Parksville coastlines
And more of the small, meaningful corners of Greater Victoria
Closing Thoughts
Coal Island was never meant to be “content.”
It’s simply a place I care about because it’s part of the landscape I see every day.
If you live in the Westshore, it’s part of yours too.
Thanks for watching and reading.
More of Vancouver Island’s quiet corners coming soon.
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Cole Island
