Photo: – Wladyslaw (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Premium · Walking Tour

Annapolis RoyalWhere Canada was contested

Annapolis Royal changed hands more often than any other place in North America. It was Port-Royal, then Annapolis Royal, French then British then French again, and the earthworks of Fort Anne were rebuilt each time by whoever had just taken them. What survives is a small town carrying an outsized amount of that history: the oldest wooden building in Canada, a garrison cemetery, a main street of merchants' houses, and the star-shaped fort at the end of it.

Hear a sample narration
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24 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.

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24 narration points ~57 minutes Fort Anne, the Historic Gardens, St George Street and the waterfront
Verified Sources

Where the facts come from

Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.

  1. 1

    Built from the record

    Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 19 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 14 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.

  2. 2

    Checked against the authority

    Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.

  3. 3

    Anything unsupported is cut

    Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.

  4. 4

    A person signs it off

    Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.

Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.

The Tour

Explore Annapolis Royal

🛡️
Fort Anne and the garrison

The Vauban earthworks, the Officers' Quarters and the cemeteries — rebuilt by every power that held them.

8 narration points
🏛️
St George Street

The oldest wooden building in Canada, the Sinclair Inn, the King's Theatre and the merchants' houses along the main street.

9 narration points
⚓
The waterfront and the churches

The tidal basin, the wharf and the churches that served a garrison town.

7 narration points
Highlights

Sites that define Annapolis Royal

Fort Anne
17th–18th century

Star-shaped earthworks rebuilt by the French and British in turn. The mounds are the fortification — there is no masonry curtain to look for.

Officers' Quarters
1797

The white building on the ramparts, now the museum, and the clearest surviving structure of the garrison.

Sinclair Inn
1710

One of the oldest buildings in Canada, built from two earlier Acadian houses and still showing the joins.

King's Theatre
1921

The town's theatre on St George Street, still working.

Fort Anne Cemeteries
17th century onward

Garrison and civilian burials on the fort's edge, including some of the oldest marked graves in Canada.

The waterfront
Ongoing

The Annapolis Basin and the tides that made this a place worth fortifying in the first place.

How It Works

Walk. Listen. See what they saw.

1
Open the tour

Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 24 narration points.

2
Walk at your pace

Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.

3
Hear the stories

Each site has its own narration — what it is, who built it and why it is here. 24 narration points.

What You Get

A companion through Annapolis Royal

📍
GPS-Triggered

Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.

🎤
Studio-Quality Voice

Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.

📚
Fact-Checked Twice

Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.

🗺
Interactive Map

See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.

🏛
24 Sites

Every significant point in Annapolis Royal, with the major sites getting full narrations and the rest covered in shorter stops.

⏱
Your Own Pace

Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.

Common Questions

How it works

What does the Annapolis Royal audio tour cover?

24 narration points, including Fort Anne Cemeteries, King's Theatre, Sinclair Inn, Fort Anne National Historic Site of Canada and Officers' Quarters Museum. That is about 57 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.

Is the Annapolis Royal tour self-guided?

Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.

It’s not just GPS — what are the ways to trigger a narration?

Three ways, all built in:

  • GPS-triggered (default): walk near a site, the narration starts automatically.
  • Tap any marker on the map: open the map view, tap any of the 24 markers to play that narration on demand — no walking required.
  • Queue controls: pause, skip, replay any narration; the queue auto-advances as you walk.

The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.

Do I need cell service or data while I’m there?

No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.

How do I make it work with no signal — and open it again later?

Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.

  1. Tap Download for offline above. It opens the guide.
  2. Put that page on your home screen — steps below.
  3. Open the guide from the new icon and download it there, on wi-fi. Keep the screen open until it finishes.

Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):

  1. Tap the three dots at the bottom of the screen.
  2. Tap Share.
  3. Scroll down the list and tap Add to Home Screen, then Add.

On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.

If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.

What if my phone’s GPS is unreliable?

Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.

How long is the tour and how much time do I need?

The audio runs ~57 minutes total, but you walk at your own pace. 24 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.

Can I share with my partner or family?

One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.

What if I never use the tour, or never make it to the site?

Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.

Walk the most contested ground in Canada
24 narration points. Fort Anne, the Historic Gardens, St George Street and the waterfront.
Already purchased? Continue your tour → ⤓ Download for offline
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