This urban geotour is a short trek up and over the top Halifax Citadel National Historic Site – traversing the 30 meter high drumlin, a pile of gravel, sand and rocks, dropped here by a melting glacier 15,000 years ago. At the bottom of the drumlin, along the edge next to Citadel High School, you can see grooves carved into the surface of the underlying slate bedrock (Halifax Formation, 560 mya). The grooves trace the direction the glaciers moved, as an the immense ice layer more than one kilometer thick scraped across the landscape.
Accessibility and Cautions
- This walk does involve a walking ascent and decent of more than 30 m with the route on sidewalk, walking paths or grass field.
- While walking around the Halifax Citadel features well maintained sidewalks, care should be taken with traffic along the roads. Use typical caution as you would in an busy urban downtown core.
Google Map
To view the tour on your phone click here to open in Google Maps.
Notes and Stops
The tour starts at the Museum of Natural History.
Stop #1 – Did you know? In front of the Museum of Natural History the concrete sidewalk has two paw prints of a wolf.
Walking toward Citadel Hill, cross the street at the crosswalk, and then cross the other intersection to walk along Bell Road.
Stop #2 – On December 6, 1917, Mont-Blanc’s main cargo was bulk high explosives. When barrels of petrochemical on deck triggered the blast, the ship was transformed into a three-kiloton bomb in a busy modern port.
In progress…. (March 12, 2023).
