The Halifax Citadel

Four forts have stood on this hill since 1749, and the one you can walk into is the fourth, finished in 1856: a masonry star fort with angled bastions, a dry ditch and a defensible gate, built to the pattern developed for artillery two centuries earlier and obsolete almost as soon as it was done, which is why it survives so completely. It was never attacked. Costumed interpreters keep the routine of a Victorian garrison, and a gun is fired at noon every day, as it has been since the nineteenth century, loud enough to startle the whole downtown. Below the hill runs the Halifax waterfront boardwalk, around four kilometres along the harbour.

What you actually see

• The noon gun - fired daily from the ramparts, audible across downtown.
• The star fort - angled bastions, dry ditch and defensible gate.
• The garrison routine - costumed interpreters, drill and the pipe band.
• The waterfront boardwalk - four kilometres along the harbour below.

When to go

May to October is the full season with interpreters, drill and the complete programme; in winter the grounds stay open but the buildings and programming largely close. Be on the ramparts a few minutes before noon for the gun. The hill also gives the best view over the harbour.

Honest expectations

Outside the summer season much of it is shut and the ticket is poor value. It is a fort that never saw action, so the interest is in the machinery of garrison life rather than any dramatic story. The hill is exposed and windy. Downtown parking around it is difficult and expensive.

Nearby

The waterfront and the Maritime Museum are downhill; Peggy's Cove is 45 minutes.