The Topsail Road Hermit

The Exiled Irish Patriot Who Vanished into the Newfoundland Wilds

Imagine this: You’re walking down a desolate stretch of Topsail Road in the late 1800s. The wind howls through the trees, and there, nestled in the shadows, is a small, ramshackle tilt.

No one dares to go near it.

People whisper about the strange young man who lives inside. Some say he was cursed, others claim he was running from something—or someone. But the truth? The truth is far more tragic, far more romantic, and far more haunting.

This is the story of the Topsail Road Hermit, a man who lived in exile with a broken heart… until the day he vanished as mysteriously as he arrived.

An Irish Rebel on the Run

Before he became a legend in Newfoundland, Kevin Izod O’Doherty was a firebrand Irish patriot, deeply in love with a poetess named Eva Mary Kelly. In the mid-1800s, Ireland was a cauldron of rebellion against British rule. O’Doherty, caught in the whirlwind of revolution, was arrested by the British and sentenced to seven years of exile.

He had lost his country. He had lost his freedom. But he had not lost her.

Eva promised to wait for him. No matter how many years passed. No matter how many oceans lay between them.

With a heart full of sorrow, O’Doherty disappeared into exile. And this is where his story takes an unexpected turn.