Rideau Canal

I have a soft spot for this Canadian World Heritage Site as I lived in Kingston - the end (or start) of the Rideau Canal - for four years during my university days. 

Kingston is an attractive city, in my opinion, with a good collection of 19th century limestone buildings. A particularly interesting building is the Neoclassical Kingston Penitentiary, which housed some of the most infamous criminals from 1835 to 2013. The “Kingston Pen” is now a museum with guided tours.  

Queen's University campus, a short walk from the historic downtown, also has its share of handsome limestone buildings and pleasant green spaces.

The UNESCO recognized Martello towers, i.e., Murney Tower, Cathcart Tower, Shoal Tower, were uniquely ubiquitous to the Kingston harbour, in that I had never seen them anywhere other than Kingston, but no Kingstonian appeared to take any notice of them. 

Fort Henry - also part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site - appeared just a tad out of the way for university students such as myself without a car, but we certainly were aware of its presence across the Great Cataraqui River, looming above the Royal Military College. The first time I visited Fort Henry was through a spooky "Ghosts of Fort Henry" tour, which still runs today. Fort Frederick is located on the grounds of the Royal Military College, but the locals are only vaguely aware of its existence.

These Kingston fortifications were built due to the fear of American invasion, …

My original plan on Rideau Canal was just to see its famous locks at Ottawa’s city center but turned out I saw many parts of the canal from Ottawa to Kingston unexpectedly. The famous and iconic Ottawa’s part of the canal was just hard to miss, while I did not find anything interesting with those multi-locks and a bit quite surprised that the size of the canal was smaller than I imagined, the location and the view of Canadian Parliament with this World Heritage Site was just superb. After great time in Ottawa, my friend and I planned to depart the city to Toronto in the morning but with certain reason, we ultimately left Ottawa on the late lunch time and decided that we had to find some place to stay instead of Toronto, and Kingston was my friend’s choice.

On the way to Kingston, one of us needed Tim Hortons, so we stopped at the small town of Kemptville to have small coffee break and filled the gas. Unknowingly that my friend accidentally adjusted google map to avoid highway while he tried to find nearest gas station, we drove into smaller picturesque road to Merrickville-Wolford. The area was lovely with beautiful houses, gardens and farms that remind me New England, one of my friends even mentioned that this area was similar to his neighborhood in Boston. When we reached Merrickville-Wolford, the sign of Merrickville Ruins sparked our curiosity, so we decided to see the ruins which also caused …

To ‘visit’ the Rideau Canal WHS there are a couple of approaches possible: you can (1) ‘tick’ it as part of a city trip to Ottawa, (2) focus on the 5 locations in and around Kingston, or (3) spend some time following the Canal on its flow between those cities. The latter is what I did: after an overnight stay in Montreal, I drove south and visited Burritts Rapids Lock Station, Merrickville Lock Station, and Jones Falls Lock Station. This part of Ontario is a flat and green farming area, like a supersized version of the Netherlands or Northern Germany.

I started at Burritts Rapids - a small, deserted site where I was the only visitor. Here you can do the 4km long ‘Tip to tip trail’ that runs from the locks via a swing bridge to the dam. It provides a pleasant morning stroll, but the canal features are a bit underwhelming. The trail can be muddy and some parts have a lot of mosquitoes (the blood was on my arms!). It’s a good area for spotting birds (it’s very quiet), as well as squirrels and turtles (the main road even has signs warning of turtles crossing).   

Merrickville Lock Station has a very different setting: it lies in a town center. If you need to have a coffee or lunch break, this would be the best place to do so as there is little along the way or at the other locations. The eye-catcher here is the …

Since my mother has family in Ottawa, I have visited the Rideau Canal several times. However, these were family waterfront strolls and not discoveries with a WHS hunting mindset. During the Covid 19 pandemic, all Quebec borders were closed except the one with Ontario. We therefore chose Kingston as the destination for the Labour Day long weekend in September 2020 and visited (or at least saw) all the components of this site.

Of the five fortifications listed by UNESCO, only Fort Henry could actually be visited. During the pandemic, they cancelled all guided tours and special activities and replaced them by a self-guided tour using a map and by interpreters in period costumes. This route allowed visitors to see both sections of the fort and to tour the museums and exhibition halls. It is possible to walk along the ramparts and understand the importance of this military structure in the defense of Kingston harbour. The ramparts offer the best view of Cathcart Tower on Cedar Island.

The other two listed Martello towers, Shoal and Murney Towers, are currently only open to visitors from the outside. The Shoal Tower, located on the marina docks in downtown Kingston, is a fairly mundane building. From the marina, you can get a good view of Fort Frederick, while access to the Royal Military College of Canada (where it is located) was still impossible due to the pandemic. The Murney Tower is located a little further west on the shores of Lake Ontario. …

The Rideau Canal may have been constructed for military purposes, but the waterway today is one of the more peaceful and relaxing World Heritage Sites I've visited. I spent a few days in Ontario last summer to see the canal, and had quite an enjoyable time. I started in Ottawa, where the canal picturesquely drops through a series of locks to meet the Ottawa River. Ottawa's Parliament is located on the hill above the canal, but unfortunately it was closed due to a state visit by the king and queen of the Netherlands. After a day and a half in Ottawa, I spent the next day driving along the Rideau Canal on the way south to the United States, passing the Rideau Lakes and several small mill towns like Merrickville. I particularly enjoyed the stop at Jones Falls, which had a grassy park and walking trails along the locks on the canal. A pleasure boater was traveling through the locks while I was there, and I think he had the right idea for an even greater appreciation of this World Heritage Site.

Logistics: Ottawa's downtown is extremely walkable, but a car is necessary to follow the canal route from Ottawa to Kingston.

The stretch of canal in the Canadian capital Ottawa turned out to be a rather pleasant surprise, as did much of this charming capital city.

My first glance of the canal however made it look a little sorry for itself; in summer it seems to be full of pleasure cruisers whilst in winter it becomes the world's longest ice rink. However on the autumn Sunday when I visited there was no water except for a few puddles clustered around bits of detritus. Not to be discouraged I headed down to the locks that lead to the Ottawa River. Despite the lack of water in the locks they are a rather magnificent ensemble. It isn't just the engineering that impresses but the fact that they are in such a wonderful urban setting, with the striking Parliament Hill on one side and fine edifices and bridges on the other, it really was much better than the dull bit of infrastructure I was expecting.

I wasn't able to venture onto the canal so instead I headed to the lovely Bytown Museum housed in a former storehouse used in the construction of the canal. The enjoyably languid audio guide did a great job of explaining the building of the canal and the role it played in the development of the city and even the country. Much to my surprise I spent several hours just exploring the area around the locks and taking large amounts of photos, before strolling across the bridge to spend a …

What a wonderful surprise the canal and fortifications was! I spent a couple of happy hours exploring Fort Henry and enjoying the views over the canal. The staff at the fort also do a super job with the 'interpretive history' experience.

A worthy WHS!