This Abandoned Military Fort Is Now Canada's Underrated Free-To-Visit Coastal Park With Haunting Beauty

For 78 years, the battlements of Fort Macaulay defended the southeastern shores of Vancouver Island. Generations of servicemen stood watch there, looking out for foreign navies that might have decided to attack the western fringe of Canada. The post was active from 1878 to 1956, although staff were likely on their highest guard around the time the site was first built, since tensions between the British Empire and Czarist Russia were notably high in the late 19th century. However, throughout its entire history, Fort Macaulay was never once attacked.

The site was transformed into Macaulay Point Park in 1985, nearly 30 years after Fort Macaulay was officially decommissioned in 1956. Now, it's a public green space with several paved pathways, and many park visitors go there to admire the underrated views of the vast Strait of Juan de Fuca that forms part of the Salish Sea. Located in the suburb of Esquimalt, Macaulay Point Park is just a 15-minute drive from downtown Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. The grounds are free to visit and open during daylight hours year round.

Wartime fortifications, including concrete batteries (pictured above), several outbuildings, and underground bunkers, still pepper the park. The batteries may strike visitors as haunting — their stained, cracked, and worn concrete walls lend the buildings a brutalist quality. Moreover, many thresholds at the fort disappear into dark recesses and tunnels, and the park's atmosphere takes something of a gothic turn on gray and rainy days. But similar to how British Columbia's most fascinating ghost town is kept alive with museums and vintage trolleys, Macaulay Point Park gets much of its character from its rugged buildings and dark covered passageways.

Despite the old fort's weathered buildings, Macaulay Point Park itself is a lovely place to explore. Visitors can walk along trails that run about a mile and a half through the park, and since they're paved, it's easy to traverse them by bike, stroller, or wheelchair. Leashed pets are also welcome at the park, making it an appealing spot for dog walking. You'll know you've made it to the park's entrance when you spot a decorative anchor statue in front of a whimsical seal mural, which sits in contrast to the stark batteries that lie amidst cleanly mown grass, bushes, and wooden fences.

If you're staying in downtown Victoria where most of the area's hotels are, it's quite easy to travel to Macaulay Point Park either by car or by bus. Victoria is known as the brunch capital of Canada, so consider following up a pancake stack or a serving of eggs Benedict with a foray into a relic of Canada's wartime past. The park makes for a surprisingly peaceful escape from the city, and it's all the more enticing for fans of architecture and military history. You can poke around the old structures as much as you please, all the while picturing what martial life might have been like for those in decades past. Fort Macaulay was never a battleground, so it's remained intact since it was built. However, coupled with vast seaside landscapes, many of the fort's rugged building exteriors make for some hauntingly beautiful sights.

There's no shortage of other striking places to explore on Vancouver Island. Victoria and its environs make up a mere fraction of the 285-mile-long island — to see it all, consider taking Vancouver Island's easy soft-roading adventure loop, which takes you along tourist-free forests and beaches.