Southwold Earthworks

This summer, I took a side trip or two up into Canada. I didn’t spend all my time taking photos, but I did manage to visit a few historic sites and bring back some images. We’ll start with the Southwold Earthworks. This is a National Historic Site. It’s not that far off one of the main east-west arteries through Ontario.

These earthworks are all that remain of an Attiwandaron village from around 1500-1650 C.E. They were part of the Iroquois, the “Neutral Iroquois.” The earthworks themselves are mostly the defensive walls surrounding the village. Many are mown regularly by someone who lives nearby, some are in the woods. It’s a quiet site, open to the public, with only a few signs to mark it’s existence.

As it happens, a local man with his dog pulled up at the same time as I did. The man regularly walks his dog here because its young and can run off leash (very happily, too). He grew up in the area and told me he used to ride horses here as a young boy, with other area children, and play around the earthworks. You can probably guess some of the games.

A very peaceful spot now, and one worth visiting if you happen to be passing by.