Photo: DXR (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio walk of about six kilometres through Niagara-on-the-Lake, the town that, as Newark, became the first capital of Upper Canada in 1792 and was burned by retreating American troops in December 1813. On Queen Street it covers the Court House of 1846 to 1848, first home of the Shaw Festival, the Memorial Clock Tower and the Niagara Apothecary, then Voices of Freedom Park, which tells of Chloe Cooley and the 1793 Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada, the Niagara Historical Museum, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and the burial ground of the Niagara Baptist Church. It goes west to Butler's Burying Ground and north along the shore to Fort Mississauga, built from 1814 with bricks salvaged from the burned town, then past Queen's Royal Park, Simcoe Park and St. Mark's Anglican Church, used as a hospital and then as barracks in the war. The last stretch takes in the Polish First World War cemetery, Navy Hall and Fort George, captured in May 1813 and largely reconstructed from 1937 to 1940 around its original 1796 powder magazine.
18 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 · 41 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.
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.
Court House, Memorial Clock Tower, Niagara Apothecary, Voices of Freedom Park, Niagara Historical Museum, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Negro Burial Ground.
Butler's Burying Ground, Fort Mississauga, Queen's Royal Park, Simcoe Park, St. Mark's Anglican Church.
Polish World War I Military Cemetery, Navy Hall, Fort George, Fort George Officers' Quarters, Fort George blockhouses, Fort George octagonal blockhouse.
A pharmacy fitted out in 1866 with black-walnut counters and a carved dispensary, in business until 1964 and restored as a museum.
An art installation telling the town's Black history, including Chloe Cooley, whose resistance in 1793 led to the Act to Limit Slavery.
The burial ground of the Niagara Baptist Church, where three leaning markers survive of a cemetery of the town's Black community.
A square brick tower in star-shaped earthworks, built from 1814 with bricks salvaged from the town burned in 1813.
The church of 1804 to 1810 that served as a British hospital in 1812 and as American barracks during the 1813 occupation.
Twenty-five small headstones with the white eagle, for Polish soldiers who died at Niagara Camp, most of them after contracting influenza.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 18 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. 18 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 Niagara-on-the-Lake — the First Capital and the War of 1812, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
18 narration points, including Court House, Niagara Apothecary, Voices of Freedom Park, Negro Burial Ground and Fort Mississauga. That is about 29 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 ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 18 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.