Canada Guide
The Maritime Provinces
Point Pleasant Park
Address: At the end of South Park Street and its continuation, Young Avenue
Opening time: Tower open July to early Sept daily 10am–6pm; free
Point Pleasant Park incorporates the remains of four gun batteries and the squat Prince of Wales Martello Tower, which was built at the end of the eighteenth century as a combined barracks, battery and storehouse. One of the first of its type, the design was copied from a Corsican tower (at Martello Point) that had proved particularly troublesome to the British. Indeed, these self-contained, semi-self-sufficient defensive fortifications with their thick walls and protected entrances proved so successful that Martello towers were built throughout the empire, only becoming obsolete in the 1870s with advances in artillery technology. Path and walking trails crisscross the surrounding park, 200 acres of wooded hills and shoreline that were unlucky enough to be badly mauled by a hurricane in 2003. Incidentally, this is one of the few places in North America where heather grows, supposedly originating from seeds shaken from the bedding of Scots regiments stationed here.