Castle Hill National Historic Site of Canada

Learning Experiences

Spend an hour or more with us … there’s plenty to see and do!

• Take a tour of the Visitor Centre exhibits and grounds, and learn about the life of the inhabitants of Plaisance during the mid-1600s.
• See the Detached Redoubt and Le Gaillardin.
• Visit the Ruins of Fort Royal and take the time to view the panorama of the Town of Placentia.
• About one hour from Placentia, 52 kilometres (32 miles) east on the Salmonier Line on Route 90, is the Salmonier Nature Park. Here you can see moose, caribou, lynx, fox, bald eagles, and many other animals found in this part of Newfoundland.
• 60 kilometres (40 miles) south of Castle Hill is the Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve, where you’ll find the second largest colony of nesting gannets in North America. Also seen at the Cape are black-legged kittiwakes, Atlantic murres and northern razorbills. A magnificent sea stack rises out of the ocean, just off the Cape. A bird watcher’s must-see and a photographer’s delight.
• About a half-hour from Castle Hill at Ship Harbour, visit the Ship Harbour Monument, commemorating the drafting of the Atlantic Charter by Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, on a warship off Ship Harbour Point in 1941.

Visitor Centre

While at Castle Hill National Historic Site of Canada, be sure to go to the Visitor Centre and view the exhibits. Interpretive panels explain about the fort and its evolution through French and British occupations.

Be sure to browse through the Historic Sites Association gift shop for reminders of your trip to Castle Hill.