Explore Big Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, with this interactive street and satellite map. Use the Map and Satellite buttons above the map to switch views. You can “grab” the map and drag it to re-centre it, or use the + and − buttons to zoom in or out to street-level detail.
This page also offers TOPO MAPS — the Canada Base Map with Toporama contours — plus shaded relief, a labelled UTM grid overlay, a distance and bearing tool, and a GPS grid-reference readout. See How to Use This Map below. You will find live weather, local and world news further down the page.
Imagery © Google · for orientation only, not for navigation
This interactive map shows the street layout and satellite imagery for Big Island, Nova Scotia. Use the Map and Satellite buttons above to switch between street map and aerial imagery views. Use the + and − buttons to zoom in or out, or scroll your mouse wheel while holding the Control key to zoom. On a touchscreen, use a two-finger pinch gesture to zoom in and out.
Click ⛶ Fullscreen to expand the map to fill your screen for a larger view. To return to the normal page view, press the Escape key on your keyboard, click the ✕ Exit Fullscreen button that appears above the map, or on a mobile device tap the back button (Android) or the close icon (iOS).
Drag the map to pan to any area of Nova Scotia or beyond. Switch to Satellite view to see high-resolution aerial photography of Big Island and surrounding areas, including streets, buildings, parks and waterways.
TOPO MAPS — NEW. Click the green 🔍 Search Maps button below the map to open a second map with a Base map row offering three choices. OSM is the standard OpenStreetMap street map. Topo shows the Canada Base Map from Natural Resources Canada with Toporama contours layered over it — the CanVec topographic data behind the printed NTS sheets, and the mapping used for hiking, hunting, canoe routes and back-country travel. Relief shows shaded relief and hypsometric tints. The search box finds any Canadian town, county or landmark by name, so you are not limited to Big Island.
Reading the map like a paper NTS sheet. Click Grid to overlay the UTM grid, labelled along the edges exactly as a printed topographic sheet is — at normal zoom the squares are one kilometre across, so you can read a six-figure grid reference by eye and judge distance directly off the map. Click Measure, then tap two points, to get the distance between them together with the grid bearing in degrees and mils, the true bearing, and the magnetic bearing to set on a compass — which matters in Canada, where declination runs from about 20 degrees west in Newfoundland to 20 degrees east in the Yukon.
Click 📍 My position to take a single GPS reading from your device. It marks where you are and reports your position as a UTM/MGRS grid reference as well as plain latitude and longitude — the grid reference being what Canadian search and rescue work from — with a Copy position button so you can paste it straight into a text message. It takes one reading and stops, rather than tracking continuously, to conserve your battery. Note that map tiles need cell coverage, but a GPS reading does not — your coordinates stay correct even where the map itself cannot load.
Map search is available for a limited number of queries per session to manage costs. Be specific — search precisely for best results.
| Place | Big Island |
| Type | Community |
| Province / Territory | Nova Scotia (NS) |
| Location | Pictou |
| Country | Canada |
| Latitude | 45.662264 |
| Longitude | -62.423227 |
| Postal Code (FSA) | B2H |
| Area Code | 782, 902 |
| Importance | Village / hamlet |
| CGN ID | CADEZ |
Big Island is a community in Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is classified as a village / hamlet. Big Island is located at 45.6623°N, 62.4232°W.
Big Island emerges from the Atlantic coast as a quiet sentinel of salt-sprayed earth, defined by the persistent push and pull of the tides against the nearby Scotch Hill. It lies 19.0 km east-north-east of New Glasgow, NS (from New Glasgow, NS: bearing 65°T), and is situated 3.6 km north of Merigomish. The air here tastes of brine and damp stone, carrying a crisp clarity that clarifies the edges of the French River as it empties toward the sea. Inland, the landscape holds the stillness of a held breath, where the light at dusk turns the grasses a bruised, metallic violet. Melmerby Beach Provincial Park rests just 7 km away, offering a sandy threshold where the land finally relents to the vast, grey expanse of the water. Generations have measured the passage of seasons by the shifting currents of the French River and the seasonal migration of the tides along the coast of Big Island. The local economy persists in a quiet dialogue with the sea and the surrounding terrain, favoring the patient work of harvesting and land stewardship over the frantic pace of modern industry. Beyond the immediate shoreline, the landscape hides deeper secrets; Crosby Lake remains a hidden pocket of stillness 11 km distant, while the distant rush of Parks Falls, located 14 km away, provides a perennial, low-frequency hum to the silence of the woods. Life here follows the sun and the moon, a steady cycle where the community finds its footing in the simple, rigorous beauty of a coastline that asks for nothing more than observation.
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Explore Big Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, with an embedded street and satellite map — switch between views using the small square in the bottom left-hand corner of the map. Coordinates: 45.662264, -62.423227. Live weather conditions and 7-day forecasts — including hourly outlooks — are provided through Open-Meteo, while real-time local and world news feeds help keep the page current. Editorial summaries provide additional local information and context.
Detailed location data for Big Island includes the postal code (B2H), telephone area code (782, 902). These are among the most commonly searched location details for any Canadian city or town.
Search Maps opens a second, independent map. It searches OpenStreetMap for any Canadian town, county or landmark by name; offers the Canada Base Map with Toporama contours and shaded relief as base layers; overlays a labelled UTM grid so the map can be read like a printed NTS sheet; measures distance and grid, true and magnetic bearings between any two points; and takes a single GPS fix reporting your position as a UTM/MGRS grid reference and as latitude and longitude. Map tiles require cell coverage, but a GPS position does not, so the coordinates remain correct even where the map cannot load.
Location data for Big Island is sourced from the Canadian Geographical Names Database (CGN), Natural Resources Canada, and verified by coordinates rather than name matching alone. GPS coordinates, province, administrative location and place type are shown in the information panel above.
| Page generated | September 2026 |
| Location data | Canadian Geographical Names Database (CGN), Natural Resources Canada |
| Map layers | Google Maps; © OpenStreetMap contributors; Canada Base Map, Toporama and CBME © Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence — Canada); magnetic declination from NOAA NCEI (World Magnetic Model) |