Knowing the Ancaster/Dundas area is home to many pretty waterfalls and several interesting historic sites, my friend Mark Eros and I set off for a day of exploring by car. Here’s what we found. Following our lead could mean a great day trip for you!

1) We began our day trip at the entrance to Ancaster, Rousseaux Street/Mohawk Road.  This old road is a former Aboriginal trail that goes across the top of the escarpment.  There’s quite a mix of single family homes here, some quite old, and several patches of very old trees.

2) We turned left on Wilson St. East.  Wilson Street is part of Old Ancaster, the historic village core, and we see many houses and stores made of local stone.  There are lots of interesting boutiques, a spa in a lovely old house dating from 1872 and several restaurants. 

On the wall of one building on the right I spied a sign identifying it as a former barracks from the War of 1812, the war between Canada and the United States.

At the corner of Wilson and Sulphur Springs Road, we noted St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, which dates from 1826.  The present stone church structure was completed in 1875. The original St. Andrew's bell was placed in the belfry/spire, and is rung each Sunday morning prior to worship.

3) We turned right on Sulphur Springs Rd.  Very soon on our left we passed the Fieldcote Memorial Park and Museum (64 Sulphur Springs Rd.). This is the home of the Ancaster Historical Society, and is open to the public Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.  Since it was Tuesday, we carried on down Sulphur Springs, past some large estate homes.

There’s a jog in the road at Lover’s Lane, but we bore to the right and stayed on Sulphur Springs.  Now we were going through a bucolic piece of what Mark calls “character road”, narrow and lush with many large trees.  This beautiful winding section of road is a very nice place to drive, and it continues for five kilometres.

4) As we descended down the escarpment, past a small portion of the Hamilton-Wentworth Waterworks, we came to the Dundas Valley Conservation Area, home of Hermitage Historical Centre and Hermitage Falls.  We pulled into the parking lot.

This would be a great place to make a stop and look at the ruins and the pretty little waterfall.  There are picnic table, a Trail Centre with indoor washrooms and a portable washroom.

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