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Ottawa's Military Memorials Bicycle Tour—3

Ottawa's Military Memorials Bicycle Tour: 3—The Rideau Canal Ride
Monument to the Liberation of Appeldoorn, known as The Man with Two Hats. The statue is located in Dow's Lake Park, east of Preston St.
Monument to the Liberation of Appeldoorn, known as The Man with Two Hats. The statue is located in Dow's Lake Park, east of Preston St.

Welcome to Tour 3 of Ottawa Military Memorial Tours, the Rideau Canal Ride. 

The Ottawa Military Memorials website describes three bicycle tours that you can take in Ottawa to visit memorials to mark military engagements, honour particular individuals, or remember veterans generally.  Many of these have been in place in Canada’s capital for over a century.   As well as locating these memorials, the tour routes take you past some of the most important landmarks and most beautiful architecture in Ottawa.

Ottawa Military Memorials Tour 3:  The Rideau Canal Ride

The website provides a route map and a list of the points of interest at each stop along the way.

The memorials on Tour 3:

The information for each memorial includes the location, what or whom the memorial is dedicated to, a brief history of the associated military events, the artist who designed the memorial, a description of the memorial design and what it represents, when it was unveiled, and for most of the memorials, a point to ponder, such as why a group of Canadians chose to memorialize that particular event, what the artist hoped we would take away from our visit, or the meaning of particular symbolism used in the design.

You will want to have a phone or tablet with you to access the information on each memorial as you go, or bring a printed version of each along with you. 

Location
Route

The ride will take you a distance of about 7.5 km when visiting the memorials from the Confederation Square to the Fletcher Wildlife Garden.  Riding time will be about 30-40 min. 

While this tour was conceived as a bicycle ride, if you prefer a walking tour, you can split the route in half.  The first part of the tour (from the National War Memorial to The Canadian Nurses Association at 50 The Driveway (between Gilmour and Waverley) covers about 1.3 km; it would take 15 to 20 min to walk the distance. 

The second part of the route would be more challenging, starting at the Aberdeen Pavilion at Lansdowne Park, and following the recrerational path around past Dow's Lake (it may be slightly shorter to cut across the Glebe via Fifth Ave and Madawaska Ave to Dow's Lake Park) and continuing on Prince of Wales up the hill to the Fletcher Wildlife Garden.  The total walking distance will be about 4.5 km, and would take 60 to 75 min of walking time, given the hill.  Rather than walking up Prince of Wales as shown in the bicycle route, it would be more interesting to take the recreational pathway behind the HMCS Carleton Building and come up through the Arboretum to the traffic circle, and then heading south to the Fletcher Wildlife Garden. 

The Ottawa Military Memorials website was created and is maintained by volunteers.  We hope that you enjoy this tour and we’d love to hear your feedback.

About the walk leader

Rob Collins has a degree in History from uOttawa and is a Volunteer Interpreter at the Canadian War Museum.  

Having discovered that there was no definitive list of memorials related to Canada's martial history, Rob and other volunteers set out on a search to find all of those within walking or cycling distance around the downtowns of Ottawa and Gatineau.  They have found more than fifty memorials so far. 

Shared By:

Rob Collins

Details:
Duration: 2 hours 30 min
Language: English
Where:
Start:The National War Memorial at Confederation Square
End:Fletcher Wildlife Garden
Area:Centretown/Glebe
Distance:7.5 kms
Gallery
Monument to the Liberation of Appeldoorn, known as The Man with Two Hats. The statue is located in Dow's Lake Park, east of Preston St. Canada's National War Memorial, Confederation Sq. Route of Ottawa Military Memorials Tour 3 The Army Survey Establishment Cairn, located on the east side of Booth St, between Norman and Carling.