Fort Beauséjour in Aulac, New Brunswick (Canada)

Juliette showing us around the French-made Tunnel at Fort Beausejour, NB (Canada).

Standing on top of a hill that the English, French and Acadian people stood atop while defending their land, I was giddy with excitement. Fort Beauséjour in Aulac, New Brunswick isn’t a recreation; the stone remains are the actual stones that have stood for over 250 years.

Juliette took a small group of us visitors through what remains of the fort, just as excited as I was. Although she insisted that she wasn’t an historian, she was certainly an unofficial one.

After walking past ruins from a 1778 French building, we bent down to enter a French-made tunnel, the highest part just over my 5’2” frame. At the end of the darkness was a prison, where there remains one rock with a prisoner’s message: he was down there for 20 days.

Back out in the light, Juliette explained that the hills have been re-created, as they had fallen in when Parks Canada took the property over in the 1920s. There’s also an outside stone wall that had been taken down and the mortar replaced, and wood in the tunnels is replicated to look authentic, but everything else is a mix from 1751-1783.

I loved climbing among the ruins as much as the kids in the group did, imagining the battles that were fought here and the lives of the soldiers. The stones have stood the test of time, so why not let people use them?

A little girl admires the ruins at Fort Beausejour, New Brunswick (Canada).

What I Liked:

• There’s a wooden horse at the entrance to the visitor’s centre that depicts a soldier’s punishment: he had to sit on the pointed wooden top with weights holding down his feet (I’m not a man, but ouch!). For real embarrassment, they’d also have to put on a dress and bonnet.
• Inside the visitor’s centre is historic info about Fort Beauséjour, along with artefacts like pistols from the 1770s, muskets from the 18th century, and swords from the 18th and 19th centuries.
• I learned that some young soldiers were made into “drummer boys,” who drummed and played the fife in order to call out the general’s orders (he couldn’t be heard over the battle sounds).
• A short drive away is Confederation Bridge, a 12.9 km (8 mile) connector between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. It’s a pretty remarkable structure and is the world’s largest bridge over ice-covered water.

Tags: Acadian, Aulac, canada, confederation bridge, english, Fort Beauséjour, french, nb, New Brunswick, Parks Canada, Prince Edward Island