The Fortune Head lighthouse, which is operated by the Canadian Coast Guard, is also on the reserve and functions as a visitor center.
[2] The Burin Peninsula is part of the Avalon Zone of the Appalachian Orogen, the geology of which chronicles the late Precambrian Alleghenian Orogeny.
The southern end of the peninsula includes a series of mafic pillow lavas, volcanigenic sediments, shales and limestones, collectively known as the Burin Group, as well as a 1500 m thick sill of gabbro about 760 million years old.
The northern end of the peninsula is defined by the Marystown Group, primarily carbon-lacking Silica-based sediments which span the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary.
Some of these rocks exhibit mud cracks and stromatolites, suggesting that deposition occurred in tidal or, at deepest, continental shelf environments.