Canada Guide
The Maritime Provinces
Carleton Martello Tower
Address: Fundy Drive
Opening time: June to early Oct daily 10am–5.30pm
Price: $3.95
This stone tower was raised as one of a chain of strongholds designed to protect the Fundy coast from American attack, its squat design – and that of several hundred others dotted across the empire – copied from a Corsican tower that had previously proved especially troublesome to the British navy. Completed in 1815, too late to be of much use in the struggle against the States, the tower was soon abandoned, though it was eventually recycled as a detention centre for deserters in World War I. Later still, in World War II, it became the focal point of the coastal defence system protecting Saint John harbour – hence the ungainly concrete structure plonked on top. Inside, there's a reconstruction of a nineteenth-century barrack room and displays on World War II – plus splendid views over town and bay.