Activities and experiences

Tour the St. Andrews Blockhouse barracks and storage battery. Bring a lunch and enjoy a serene picnic overlooking the dramatic ebb and flow of the world-famous Bay of Fundy’s tides. Heritage interpreters are on hand in summer.

Discover the Blockhouse

Experience life as a British Royal Artillery soldier might have during the War of 1812. Try on the heavy blue, red and gold uniforms and imagine life spent defending the town from private armed vessels (American privateers) known to raid military installations and towns.

Explore the restored blockhouse barracks room and storage loft. Picture aiming the carronades to fire. Check out the roof that overhangs from the second floor, for great vantage points against harbour attacks. Look through the loopholes and gun ports and imagine raising your rifle to secure the shoreline.

Cross-border travellers will be interested in seeing the War of 1812 from the Canadian vantage point, as the Blockhouse is situated directly across from the New England state of Maine (then part of Massachusetts), whose residents suffered greatly during the war.

Make sure to see where flames torched the walls of the salvaged Blockhouse after a major fire in 1993.

Pollinator garden project

We’ve planted our own pollinator garden next to the blockhouse. Stop by and you might see a yellow-banded bumblebee, a monarch butterfly, or even a ruby-throated hummingbird! Our garden is a gateway to the world of pollinators. We hope you explore and become inspired to plant a garden too.

Photography

The site's seaside views make it a venue often favoured by photographers.

Observing the intertidal zone

The site offers a good viewpoint to observe the changes in the shoreline and harbour by the ebb and flow of the Bay of Fundy's tides which, at this location, rise and fall an average of 7.24 m (24 feet) twice every day. This dramatically changes what you can see of the coastal environment.

St. Andrews Blockhouse is adjacent to Passamaquoddy Bay, which flows into the Bay of Fundy. Visitors who venture away from shore should be watchful of the tide, as it is possible to become stranded by the rising tide.