A self-guided audio walking tour over Mount Royal, about nine kilometres of paths and stairs from Avenue du Parc through the mountain's two great cemeteries, back to the Chalet and down to the Sulpician towers on Sherbrooke Street. It starts at the George-Étienne Cartier Monument, more than 30 metres high, climbs to the Mount Royal Cross, which recalls Maisonneuve's wooden cross of 1643, and the Camillien-Houde Lookout over the east of the city. In Mount Royal Cemetery, the Protestant rural cemetery consecrated in 1852, it visits the grave of Anna Leonowens, governess at the court of Siam; in Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, opened in 1854, the graves of Cartier himself, of Calixa Lavallée, who wrote the music of O Canada, and of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, a Father of Confederation. Past Beaver Lake, made from a swamp in 1938, and Smith House, it reaches the Chalet du Mont-Royal, begun in 1931 as a Depression work project, and the Kondiaronk Belvedere, and ends at the Simon McTavish monument and the Fort de la Montagne towers, built for the Sulpicians in 1685. The cemeteries are active burial grounds.
14 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
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.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 113 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 30 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
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.
George-Étienne Cartier Monument, Mount Royal Cross, Camillien-Houde Lookout, Grave of Anna Leonowens, Mount Royal Cemetery.
Grave of George-Étienne Cartier, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery, Grave of Calixa Lavallée, Grave of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Beaver Lake.
Smith House, Chalet du Mont-Royal and Kondiaronk Belvedere, Simon McTavish Monument, Fort de la Montagne Towers.
The 26-tonne steel cross over the east of the city, recalling Maisonneuve's vow and the wooden cross he raised in 1643 after the flood spared Ville-Marie.
The grave of the governess at the court of King Mongkut of Siam, whose books about it appeared in 1870 and 1873, and whose account of her own early life was invented.
The modest monument to the composer of the music of O Canada, first performed in Quebec City on June 24, 1880.
The tomb of the Young Irelander who came to Montreal in 1857 and became a Father of Confederation.
The Chalet begun in 1931 as a Depression employment project, and the terrace looking out over downtown Montreal.
Two round stone towers built for the Sulpicians in 1685 to protect their mission, among the oldest stone structures on the island.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 14 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 14 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
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.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Mount Royal — Montreal's Mountain, Park and Cemeteries, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
14 narration points, including George-Étienne Cartier Monument, Mount Royal Cross, Mount Royal Cemetery, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery and Beaver Lake. That is about 21 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
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.
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.
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.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
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.
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.
The audio runs ~3–4 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 14 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.
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.
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.