Horaceville

Two days before I visited the site, I didn't know it existed.

My photo meetup group had planned a shoot at the site, but I was unable to go. A model was to be in a period piece, or something, and would be photographed around the ruins.

Because I love ruins, I was more interested in the location than the model shoot. And because I had never heard of the place, I made a search for it on Google to find out where it was. Perhaps, late one night, I would come out here and shoot the stars with the ruins in the foreground.

So, two days after I declined the invitation to the model meetup, when I dropped my youngest daughter in Richmond for some archery practice with her Girl Guides group, I raced up, through Kanata, toward, Dunrobin, and on to Pinhey's Point.

And when I saw the structures, I knew I had found my next Where In Ottawa challenge.

It took only about 48 hours for the challenge to be solved: sort of the time it took for me to learn of Horaceville's existence (that's the name of the estate) and to get out and explore it. Congratulations to Marc, who correctly identified this site.

Here are the clues, explained:

1. An estate named for a son—Hamnett Kirkes Pinhey, an English merchant, was awarded the 1000-acre land along the Ottawa River for his service during the Napoleonic Wars. He settled on the land and named the estate after his son, Horace.
2. Hamnett's Ottawa River view—the stone house, built between 1822 and 1825, overlooks the Ottawa River. Today, from its banks, you can see Kanata to the southeast.

One of the things that I love, in posting the Where In Ottawa contest, is that I get to learn about new places or discover the past about places I've seen many times before. I hope you enjoy learning with me.

The next contest is Monday, June 1.