Melville Island

Melville Island, Canada

Low gravel hills of Melville Island glow in the low midnight sun of August, with hummocks in the foreground and a pale shore leading the eye to the ridge.

Melville Island is an empty, treeless slab of the high Arctic where British naval ships once froze in, and almost nobody goes.

The place

Melville Island belongs to the Queen Elizabeth Islands, the northern cluster of Canada's Arctic Archipelago, and nobody lives on it. Two territories share it: the Northwest Territories administers the western half, Nunavut most of the eastern half, and a line of longitude marks the boundary. One oddity is that two small pockets of Northwest Territories land sit on the eastern side and can be reached overland only from Nunavut. Prince Patrick Island lies to the northwest, Eglinton Island to the west and Byam Martin Island to the east, while Viscount Melville Sound separates the island from Victoria Island to the south. The landscape is stark. Hills and low mountains rise to about 776 metres, and the ground carries very little vegetation, mostly hummocks of moss and lichen with grasses and sedges where the cover is continuous. There are no roads, no shops, no villages and no scheduled services. Anyone who goes is part of an expedition, a research party or a specialist charter, and the nearest practical gateway for the wider territory is Yellowknife, far to the south. Honest expectations matter here. This is a place to read about, or to visit only with an experienced operator, a large budget and a willingness to be overruled by the weather. Summer brings long light and open ground; winter brings darkness and sea ice that locks the channels.

Its story

Melville Island entered European records in 1819, when the British naval officer Sir William Parry pushed his ships west through the Arctic channels. The sea froze around him before he could turn back, so his crews sat out the winter at a bay now called Winter Harbour and were not free until the following summer. The island carries the name of Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville, who was First Sea Lord at the time. A generation later it became a stage in the hunt for Sir John Franklin's missing expedition. Abraham Bradford explored the east coast as far as Bradford Point, and a team including Francis Leopold McClintock, Richard Vesey Hamilton and George Henry Richards surveyed the north and west coasts. Captain Edward Belcher's rescue ships then wintered at Dealey Island, just off the south coast, and HMS Resolute was among them. From there a sledge party reached HMS Investigator, which had been stuck in the ice at Mercy Bay on Banks Island for two years. Her survivors hauled their way north to Dealey in stages. The ships that had come to help, Investigator and her steam tender HMS Pioneer among them, also failed to break out, and Belcher finally ordered every vessel abandoned. Little in the landscape has changed since.

What to see

Culture

Melville Island has no resident community, so its culture is really the culture of the wider Canadian Arctic that surrounds it. The northern territories are home to Inuit, Inuvialuit, Dene and Métis peoples, whose knowledge of ice, animals and weather made the long Arctic expeditions of the nineteenth century possible, often without credit. Their skills in sledging, snow-house building and hunting are still taught and practised in the communities to the south. For visitors, northern manners are quiet and practical: people are generous with time and practical help, and the land is treated as a working landscape, not a backdrop. Hunting, fishing and sharing food remain central to daily life. The old expedition sites on and around Melville Island, from wintering camps to cairns and abandoned supplies, are historic remains. They are left where they lie. Alcohol rules also vary by community. Some settlements have banned it entirely and others restrict importing or possessing it, so check before arriving. Humour, patience and flexibility count for more than schedules, because weather decides when planes fly and boats sail. Winter darkness and midsummer light shape the rhythm of the year, and many northern events are timed around them. Before photographing a person, a household or a hunting camp in any northern community, ask permission first and respect a refusal.

What to wear

Traditional dress across the Canadian Arctic was designed around survival. Inuit and Inuvialuit made hooded parkas and trousers from caribou and sealskin, with fur-lined boots called kamiks, mittens and sometimes a woman's amauti, a parka with a pouch for carrying a baby. Dene and Métis communities further south are known for moosehide, fine beadwork and woven sashes. Ceremonial and festive dress still uses these materials and patterns, and today they appear at community gatherings and cultural events. Everyday clothing in northern towns is practical and modern: down jackets, insulated boots, wool hats, snow pants and fleece, with traditional pieces added for identity and warmth. A visitor to Melville Island, which means a guided expedition, should dress for wind, wet and long cold exposure. Think layers: a wool or synthetic base, an insulating mid layer, and a windproof, waterproof shell. Insulated, waterproof boots with a good grip are essential on stony, boggy or icy ground, along with warm gloves, a face covering and sunglasses against glare off snow and sea ice. Even summer needs a warm hat and a heavy jacket. In Yellowknife and other towns, dress is casual, and there is no special dress code for museums or restaurants beyond modest, comfortable clothing.

What to eat

Plan it

Best time. July and August, when the ground is clear and daylight is almost constant; winter brings darkness, deep cold and ice-bound channels, and the northern lights are best seen from Yellowknife in the long winter nights.

How long. 7–10

Getting there. No scheduled flights, roads or rail reach Melville Island. Fly to Yellowknife via Edmonton, Calgary or Vancouver, with seasonal links from Whitehorse, Toronto and Ottawa, then arrange a specialist charter or expedition for the last leg.

Budget. high

Tips

Etiquette

Nearby

Sources