| Location: |
610 York Blvd. (map)
Hamilton, Ontario |
| Phone: |
905-546-2872 |
| Fax: |
905-546-2875 |
| Email: |
dundurn@hamilton.ca |
Hours of Operation
Labour Day to June 30: Tuesday to Sunday: 12 - 4 pm
July 1 to Labour Day:
Tuesday to Sunday: 11 am - 4 pm
Note: Last tour starts at 4 pm
(Closed Mondays, Good Friday,
Christmas Day, Boxing Day and
New Year's Day)
Depending on availability, we will gladly
open outside of regular hours for
pre-booked groups.
The Landscape Project
In 1855, Sir Allan Napier MacNab was the Premier of the combined Provinces of Canada and at the height of a very colourful career. He lived in Dundurn, the home he had built 23 years earlier with architect and landscape designer Robert Charles Wetherall and Master Gardener William Reid.
Dundurn National Historic Site is situated at the western end of Lake Ontario on a promontory referred to as Burlington Heights, a spectacular natural landscape. Wetherall and Reid sculpted the grounds into a picturesque landscape to complement the grand Italianate villa. Today, 150 years later, this is an historic site of national significance. It is however, also, a city park. The recent landscape restoration is being undertaken with respect for balance between these two aspects of the site.
The Kitchen Garden
One of the most interesting aspects of the recent landscape restoration project at Dundurn National Historic Site is the attempt to recreate Sir Allan MacNab's Victorian kitchen garden. We have just begun to recreate a garden which would have been recognizable to Sir Allen MacNab and his gardener William Reid.
Rich, bountiful, and a pleasure to the senses, the kitchen garden at Dundurn, as at any fine Victorian home, provided an abundance of fashionable fruit, flowers, vegetables, and herbs, essential to the kitchen and dining room. The sense of rich abundance would spread through the house with the best of each harvest being served to the family and guests, while the remainder was preserved for the winter season. The formal walled garden in Scottish fashion, referred to as a pleasaunce, had a series of garden beds and walkways bordered with flowers and herbs, a perfect spot for a leisurely stroll. Today the public can stroll on the same pathways and imagine what it might have been like to be a guest at Dundurn.
Travel the VIA Rail Garden Route to explore more gardens in Canada.