Sights in Amherst, Nova Scotia

It’s worth stopping briefly in Amherst just for the historic streetscapes and murals painted on the sides of buildings in the small downtown—one particularly colorful piece depicts the sports history of the town. Because of its key geographic location and the building of the railway in the 19th century, Amherst became an important commercial hub, sparking a manufacturing boom—pianos, shoes, luggage, and woolen products were all made here. This history is evident in the large brick and sandstone buildings about town—notice the elaborately pedimented 1888 courthouse at the corner of Victoria and Church. A short stroll north is the sandstone Amherst First Baptist Church, with its pair of prominent turrets. Farther north are the stoutly proportioned Doric columns announcing the 1935 Dominion Public Building, which previously served as the town’s post office. While the era of prosperity fueled by the railway has largely passed, there is still some manufacturing on the edges of town near the Trans-Canada.

If you need a pick-me-up, a good place for organic coffees and/or a meal is Art of Eating Deli & Cafe in the heart of downtown at 91 Victoria St. (tel. 902/660-9105), which is also Route 6. It has soups and wraps, including many options for vegans and vegetarians, to go with cappuccino or macchiato.

Heading east on Route 6 from the center toward Pugwash on the coast, are homes from the past 150 years or so, displaying an eclectic range of architectural styles and materials. Info on Amherst’s history is available at Cumberland County Museum (tel. 902/667-2561), 150 Church St. Set in the 1836 home of R. B. Dickey, one of the Fathers of Canadian Confederation, the museum is especially strong in documenting details of local industry and labor—it’s big on rugs, fabrics, knitting, census records and oral histories. (Amazing historical footnote: No fewer than four of said Fathers hailed from Amherst.)The museum is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 4:30pm. Admission is C$3 adult, C$5 per family.

Exploring Pugwash & Tatamagouche

Pugwash, which comes from the Mi’kmaq word pagweak, meaning deep waters, has a slightly industrial feel. That white stuff you see piled across the water, or being loaded onto ships at the small cargo port, is salt from the local salt mine. Pugwash sits on top of a salt deposit some 450m (1,476 ft.) thick. But that’s not what’s notable here. Remarkably, this is the site where some of the world’s great thinkers came together and had a huge impact on world politics and world peace. When World War II ended, Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, and several scientists published the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, calling for nuclear disarmament. They wanted to debate these issues in a location free from scrutiny from any government. Finding funding with “no strings attached” was a problem until Cyrus Eaton, an American industrialist, stepped forward and agreed to fund the entire project with one condition: They must hold the conference in Pugwash. In his honor, attendees named it the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. The first Peace Conference was held in 1957 at what is now known as the “Thinkers Lodge” at 249 Water St. The Pugwash Movement grew and is now held in cities throughout the world. Important conferences are still held periodically at the Lodge. Mr. Eaton received the Lenin Peace Prize in 1960. In 1995, the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs won the Nobel Peace Prize. Thinkers Lodge is now a National Historic Site. The lodge is open June-July, Thursday to Monday from 10am-5pm; August Monday to Thursday, 10am to 5pm; and by appointment only September to October.

There’s also notable shopping in town. Seagull Pewter (tel].888/955-5551 or 902/243-3850) is well known throughout the province and is made in a factory on the east side of town; look for the retail store and factory outlet (which also stocks antiques) on the other side of town, just west of the Pugwash River bridge on Route 6. A second pewter manufacturer called Basic Spirit is at 73 Water St. (tel. 902/243-3390 or 877/245-3821) with a retail shop also on Route 6 at 9828 Durham St. Both factories produce giftware like Christmas ornaments, picture frames, and jewelry; both are open daily in summer.

Tatamagouche is a pleasant fishing village with a cameo on TV (the CBC miniseries The Week the Women Went was based here).There’s a very good Saturday morning farmers market at Creamery Square (tel. 902/657-3500) a historic waterfront development, a collection of red-shingled buildings, beside the Waugh River. Inside one of these, guides demonstrate their skill at building wooden boats. Another houses a  great art gallery and a performing-arts venue with a 170-seat auditorium that hosts year-round performances by both local and international musicians and artists. You can even go craft shopping here with several shops in town. Sara Bonnyman Pottery ( tel. 902/657-3215) has a studio and shop just outside town on Route 246, where you’ll find rustic country-style plates, mugs, and hooked rugs in a speckled pattern embellished with blueberries, sunflowers, and other pleasing country motifs. For regional tipples, the Tatamagouche Brewing Company (tel. 902/657-4000) at 235 Main St. offers brews like Hippie Dippie Pale Ale (they claim no hippies were harmed in its making) and Butcher Block Red, a boldly hopped, richly malty beer named for the building they occupy, a former butcher shop. Jost Vineyards  (tel. 800/565-4567; daily 10am-6pm), on the Malagash Road 17km (10.5 miles) west of Tatamagouche off Route 6, is Nova Scotia’s largest winery and one of its oldest; the first vines were planted here in 1978. Their whites are best, with the Muscat a good choice to pair with Nova Scotia seafood.

A couple of provincial museums preserve and interpret the history and workings of two mills. Tucked in a wooded gorge, the lovely Balmoral Grist Mill  (tel. 902/657-3016), with a brook tumbling over a dam next to a giant waterwheel, is restored to 1874 condition and still creaks and grinds inside. Try the oat cakes made with oats ground here, or bring a picnic to enjoy in the shade while you listen to the splash of the mill stream. Find it at 544 Peter MacDonald Rd. off Route 311, 14km (9 miles) from Tatamagouche off Route 6 as it crosses the Waugh River. Equally intriguing, the 1890s Sutherland Steam Mill ★★ (tel. 902/657-3365) is at 3169 Route 326 in Denmark (off Route 6 at Brule Corner), 15km (9 miles) east of Tatamagouche. The recently restored boilers and machinery are fired up regularly in summer to demonstrate the operations of this sawmill where trees went in one end and out the other came everything from lumber to wooden bathtubs. Both museums are open June through October, Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm. Fees are very reasonable: C$3.90 adult, C$2.80 students and seniors, C$8.65 families.

What to See in Pictou


The First Nations Mi’kmaq presence here goes back eons. Long before first contact, Pictou was their summering grounds. The first Europeans arrived here in 1773 as part of a development scheme. Under the terms of a land grant, speculators from Philadelphia needed to place settlers at the harbor. The company sent a ship called the Hector to Scotland to drum up a few hundred desperately impoverished souls who might be amenable to starting their lives over again in North America. The ship returned with some 200 passengers, mostly Gaelic-speaking Highlanders. The stormy voyage was brutal, and the passengers nearly starved, but they made it—disembarking in high style, wearing tartans and victoriously playing bagpipes.

Today, Pictou is a historic harborside town with tons of interesting buildings. There are so many sandstone edifices adorned with five-sided dormers here that you might feel at times like you’ve wandered into an Edinburgh side street by mistake. Water Street is especially pleasing, with its boutiques, casual restaurants, and pubs filling the storefronts.

The harbor is marred by the large pulp mill across the water. Still, the waterfront can be animated. While the Hector Heritage Quay Visitor’s Marina (tel. 902/790-1490) at 37 Caladh Ave is closed for renovation until 2026, eateries are still open and live free musical entertainment takes place every Sunday and Monday evening, all summer long.

The Performing Arts are alive and well in Pictou at the 420-seat deCoste Entertainment Centre at 99 Water St. (tel. 902/485-8848), which reopened in September 2024 after an expansion of more than 10,000 square feet, including a modern public library, art exhibition and greatly enhanced accessibility. It presents musical performances by award-winning local and international artists, theatre, and dance year-round.

Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.