Autumn at Point Pleasant Park: trails, forts and history

Autumn is a good time to walk Point Pleasant Park, which takes up 185 acres at the southern end of the Halifax Peninsula. The Mi'kmaq once called the area "the place of spirits," and it has since become one of the city's most visited spots, with nearly 40 kilometres of criss-crossing trails that range from easy to moderate. It's open every day from 5:00 to midnight, so there's plenty of room to spread out a walk.

The park gives you two environments in one. Inland, a regenerating Acadian forest of red spruce, balsam fir and white pine holds songbirds, American red squirrels, black-capped chickadees, red foxes, double-crested cormorants, ospreys and harbour seals. Along the rocky Atlantic coast, the seals and seabirds are easy to spot from the shore. If you're bringing a dog, they can go off-leash on most wooded trails as long as you keep them under voice control, but they need to be on-leash on Cambridge Drive, in all parking lots and on Sailor's Memorial Way, where dogs aren't allowed after 10:00. Aggressive dogs, females in heat and puppies under three months aren't permitted at all. Cyclists can use all the main roads and paths during the week, but on weekends and holidays biking is limited to a marked two-kilometre route along Sailor's Memorial Way and Cambridge Drive.

Much of the park's character comes from its military past, which ran from the mid-18th century until after the First World War. The centrepiece is the Prince of Wales Tower at the southern tip, the oldest Martello tower in North America, built between 1796 and 1799 by order of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and designed by Captain James Straton. It stands 125 feet above sea level with walls eight feet thick at the base and is now owned and run by Parks Canada. Around it sit the Point Pleasant Battery, Fort Ogilvie, the Northwest Arm Battery and the Cambridge Battery, much of the stone for which came from King's Quarry in Purcell's Cove Backlands, which worked from the late 18th century until the 1950s. Nearby, the Halifax Memorial, known as the Sailor's Memorial, was erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to remember those lost in the First and Second World Wars with no known grave; it stands 12 metres tall on a Quebec grey granite platform with 3,257 names inscribed in bronze.

The ground holds some odd history too. Edward Cornwallis settled here before moving the colony to Citadel Hill. Joseph Howe, the Halifax-born journalist and politician who helped Nova Scotia become the first British colony to win responsible government in 1848, fought a duel near the current park in 1840 against John Halliburton, whose shot missed while Howe fired into the air. And in 1809, the pirate Edward Jordan was hanged at Black Rock Beach, the first pirate to be hanged in Canada.

Getting there is straightforward. The upper parking lot at Tower Road holds about 50 cars, and the lower lot on Point Pleasant Drive takes around 150, with four Level 2 EV chargers. The nearest bus stop is ID# 8409 on the 29 Barrington, about 15 minutes from downtown at C$3 a ride. Inside, there are public washrooms, picnic tables, benches, outdoor exercise equipment, a small playground and information kiosks. The park can be booked for weddings and special events at seven specific spots, including Quarry Pond and the Prince of Wales Tower, though receptions aren't allowed. The main office is at 5530 Point Pleasant Drive, and the lost and found is at the Park Maintenance Building at 5718 Point Pleasant Drive.