Area guides
Every town here trades differently. These are the things I would tell you over coffee before you started looking.
Smiths Falls
Canal town with room to breathe
Smiths Falls sits where the Rideau Canal steps down through the middle of town — the combined lock here has the highest lift on the whole canal — and that has shaped it for two centuries. It is a working town with real amenities at prices that still surprise people arriving from Ottawa. It is also, technically, a separated town: inside Lanark County geographically, but running its own council.
Read the guide →Perth
Heritage stone and a river through the middle
Perth was laid out in 1816 as a military settlement, and it kept its bones. The stone streetscape downtown is among the best preserved in Ontario — mostly built from the 1830s onward, in local sandstone, limestone and dolostone, by Scottish and Irish masons who had come out for the canal work. The Tay River runs right through the middle of town past Stewart Park.
Read the guide →Westport
A village on the water, under the ridge
Westport sits at the west end of Upper Rideau Lake, named for exactly that position back in 1841, with Foley Mountain on the ridge above it. It is small — a few hundred people year-round — scenic, and it runs on the water.
Read the guide →Rideau Lakes
The chain of lakes, and the villages between them
Rideau Lakes Township covers a lot of ground and a lot of water — Big Rideau, Upper Rideau, Newboro, Opinicon and more — along with the villages of Portland, Elgin, Newboro and Delta. The Rideau Canal running through it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Read the guide →Lanark County
Maple country, rivers and small towns
Lanark County runs from the farmland around Perth — the county seat — out to Carleton Place and Almonte in the east and up into the Lanark Highlands in the west. It calls itself the Maple Syrup Capital of Ontario, and in March it earns the name.
Read the guide →Not sure where to look?
That is a good conversation to have early
Most people arrive with one town in mind and buy in another. Tell me what matters — commute, water, acreage, schools, budget — and I will tell you honestly where it is realistic.