The Rideau Canal was dug for a war that never came. Finished in 1832 as a military supply route between Montreal and the Great Lakes that would stay out of range of American guns on the St. Lawrence, it never carried a soldier in anger and instead became something better: a 202 kilometre chain of rivers, lakes and hand-built locks linking Ottawa to Kingston, still operated by hand, still open to boats every summer, and since 2007 a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Following it from one end to the other, by car, by bicycle or, if you have a week, by boat, is one of the most pleasant slow journeys in Ontario. We start in the capital.
Ottawa: the canal in the city
In Ottawa the canal runs straight through the centre, and the flight of eight locks that drops it 24 metres to the Ottawa River sits directly beside Parliament Hill. Watching the lock staff crank the wooden gates open by hand, exactly as they did in the 1830s, is free and takes fifteen minutes; the old commissariat building at the base of the flight, the oldest stone building in the city, houses a small museum about the canal’s construction and the thousands of labourers who died building it, many of malaria.
Parliament Hill itself is a short climb. The Centre Block is closed for a long restoration, but the grounds are open, the changing of the guard takes place on summer mornings, free tours of the temporary Senate and House chambers can be booked, and the walk around the back of the hill along the cliff gives the best view of the river. Across the road, the national art gallery and the market district fill an afternoon.
Skating the Rideau in winter
From roughly January to early March, depending on the cold, a 7.8 kilometre stretch of the canal through central Ottawa is cleared, flooded and opened as a public skating rink. The city claims it as the world’s largest, with a surface area equal to about 90 hockey rinks. Skating is free; rentals, change huts and stands selling fried dough pastries line the ice, and locals genuinely commute on it. Mild winters have shortened and occasionally cancelled the season in recent years, so check that it is open before planning a trip around it. Even when it is closed, the Winterlude festival in February fills the city with ice sculptures and snow slides.
The road south: locks, villages and a choice of routes
By car, the fastest way from Ottawa to Kingston is Highway 416 to the 401, about 200 kilometres and two hours. The better way is Highway 15 and the county roads that shadow the canal, which add an hour and take you past most of the 24 lock stations along the route. Each one is a small park with green lawns, a stone lockmaster’s house and, in season, a lock staff member happy to explain the workings.
Three stops stand out. Merrickville, about 75 kilometres from Ottawa, is a village of stone buildings from the 1830s and 1840s with a ruined blockhouse beside the locks and a main street of galleries and cafes. Smiths Falls, a little further, is the canal’s midpoint and headquarters, with a combined lift of about 15 metres and a good visitor centre. Jones Falls, closer to Kingston, has a stone arch dam that was the highest in North America when it was built, a defensible lockmaster’s house on the hill, and a flight of four locks in a wooded gorge. Chaffey’s Lock and the villages of the Rideau Lakes in between are the quiet heart of the system.
Cyclists can follow a signed route the entire way, and boaters take four to six days for the through trip, paying a lockage fee and mooring overnight at the lock stations.
Kingston and Fort Henry
Kingston sits where the canal, the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario meet, and its limestone downtown, a legacy of its brief years as capital of the Province of Canada in the 1840s, is one of the handsomest in the country. The market square behind the city hall has held a farmers market since 1801. The waterfront walk, the old penitentiary tours and the Martello towers on the harbour take a full day.
Across the causeway, on the hill above the harbour, Fort Henry was built between 1832 and 1837 to guard the canal’s southern entrance and the naval dockyard. It is a national historic site and part of the UNESCO inscription. In summer the fort runs a full program of musket and artillery drills, a garrison parade in period uniform, and a sunset ceremony on some evenings; the ramparts alone justify the admission fee for the view down the lake. The fort closes for much of the off-season, so check the calendar.
The Thousand Islands
East of Kingston the St. Lawrence breaks up into the Thousand Islands, which in fact number about 1,860 depending on who is counting and how small a rock qualifies. Granite outcrops with a single pine tree, islands with grand summer houses from the 1890s, and a national park of 20-odd islands reachable only by boat make up an archipelago that straddles the border with the United States.
Boat cruises leave from Kingston, from Gananoque about 30 kilometres east, and from Rockport further along, with tours running from one hour to a half day. Some cross into American waters to visit a castle built by a Gilded Age millionaire; bring a passport if you want to land there. The Thousand Islands Parkway, a 37 kilometre riverside road between Gananoque and Brockville, is a gentle drive with pull-outs and a viewing tower on Hill Island for those who prefer to stay dry. Kayak rentals and short guided paddles are available in Gananoque and are the best way to get among the small islands.
Seasons and practicalities
A few things to know:
- The canal’s navigation season runs from about the Victoria Day weekend in May to the Thanksgiving weekend in October; lock stations are staffed and open daily in July and August, with shorter hours in the shoulder months.
- Skating in Ottawa depends on sustained cold; late January and February are the most reliable weeks.
- Kingston is about 260 kilometres from Toronto and 290 from Montreal, with frequent train service from both and from Ottawa.
- Fort Henry and most island cruises operate from mid May to mid October.
- Summer humidity along the river can be heavy; early morning and evening are the best times on the water.
Give the corridor three days: one in each city and one for the locks in between. The canal was built to move armies quickly. It rewards the opposite.