Pollett's Cove was first inhabited by the Mi'kmaq. During the
American Revolution, Ensign S.W. Prenties of the
84th Regiment of Foot wrote the first recorded description of the village. This account is included in Prenties' book about being shipwrecked off the coast of Cape Breton and being saved by Mi'kmaq (1780). The community was first settled by Europeans in 1838. The first European settler to arrive at Pollett's Cove was Donald McLean and his three sons. They were from Scotland and spoke Gaelic. Around 1861, upon returning from Bay St. Lawrence, two of McLean's sons drowned a few hundred yards from the Cove leaving behind their wives and children. (One of these sons was Duncan who was issued the first land grant in the Cove in 1861). By 1887, there were six families living in the Cove and 9 years later two more families joined the community. These eight families lived in seven houses (1901). There was a post office in the Cove for twenty years (1896-1916) as well as a school and "lobster factory". In 1947, wildfires burned the abandoned buildings in Pollett's Cove. == Preservation ==