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If you’re out and about Halifax, with it being the historic city that it is I’d recommend you pay a visit to a couple of the historic sites around the city – first of which York Redoubt.

York Redoubt as a place to visit is both an interesting historic site, as well as a fantastic spot to take pictures of the surrounding landscape, and not only that it’s only a very short drive from the city its self.

York Redoubt was the heart of the defences protecting the outer harbour approaches to Halifax. Begun in 1793 on a bluff overlooking the harbour entrance, it was enlarged by the Duke of Kent who constructed a Martello tower there in 1798.
The redoubt became an essential link in the communications system protecting the city against suprise attack. Its strategic importance was such that it was rebuilt in the 1860s and 1880s to mount more powerful guns.

In the twentieth century York Redoubt became the tactical command centre for all harbour defences. It was a command centre for harbour defences in World War II , which included observation posts, gun placements and an anti-submarine net which stretched across the harbour’s entrance from Fort McNab on McNabs Island. It remained active until it was finally closed from miliatary use in 1956.

With expansion and rebuilds going on throughout the centuries there are a variety of different buildings on the site, from the martello tower in the 1700s, the fortifications in the 1800s and the world war two buildings from the 1900s.

From the redoubt walls as you walk round you may see a path, if you find a way onto this path you will be able to follow it all the way down to the ocean and there are quite a few opportunities to snap some truly great photos.

So don’t miss this great historic site where you can take in some history and enjoy the scenic views of the harbour mouth and adjacent coastline.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, September 5th, 2009 at 10:14 am and is filed under Nova Scotia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.