Canada Guide
Newfoundland and Labrador
Signal Hill Natural Historic Park
Opening time: Visitor centre open daily: mid-June to early Sept 8.30am–8pm; early Sept to Dec and April to mid-June 8.30am–4.30pm
Price: $3.95 for visitor centre
Rearing up above The Narrows, Signal Hill National Historic Park is a protuberant, grass-covered, lake-studded chunk of rock with views that are dramatic enough to warrant the strenuous half-hour (2km) walk up from the northern end of Duckworth Street – there's no city bus. Originally known as The Lookout, Signal Hill took its present name in the middle of the eighteenth century, when it became common practice for flags to be hoisted here to notify the city of impending arrivals. The signallers would also indicate whose ship or ships were approaching, thereby giving the city's merchants a couple of hours to prepare docking and supplies – or time for city folk to gather down at the harbour to celebrate the arrival of the highliner, the first ship back from the seal hunt. The hill was also an obvious line of defence for the garrison of St John's, and the simple fortifications that were first established during the Napoleonic Wars were embellished every time there was a military emergency, right up until World War II.
Signal Hill Visitor Centre has well-chosen displays that explore the history of the city and the island. Beside the centre is Gibbet Hill, where the bodies of hanged criminals were once left to rot as a grisly warning to sailors passing through The Narrows – just in case they were harbouring mutinous thoughts. Just up the road a bit is the Queen's Battery, whose antiquated guns peer over the entrance to the harbour. The plot of ground beside the battery is used for 1790s period military tattoos from the middle of July to the middle of August, and down below, by the water, is Chain Rock, from where a chain used to be dragged across The Narrows in times of danger.