Photo: KristaKals (CC BY-SA 3.0)
A self-guided audio walking tour of St. John's, from the harbour to the top of Signal Hill. It starts among the salt-cod warehouses of the Murray Premises, the barrel-vaulted Newman Wine Vaults where port was aged, and the Court House of 1904. Uphill come the Anglican Cathedral, rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1892; The Rooms, on the site of Fort Townshend; the Roman Catholic Basilica, built between 1841 and 1855; the Colonial Building, where the legislature sat until 1959; Government House; Commissariat House; and St. Thomas', the old Garrison Church. Back at the water come the National War Memorial, unveiled on July 1, 1924, and Harbourside Park, where Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland in 1583. The walk then climbs through the Battery to Gibbet Hill, Queen's Battery and Cabot Tower, where Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal in December 1901, and ends at Ladies Lookout, the hill's highest point. Cruise ships berth along the harbourfront below Water Street, a few minutes' walk from the first stop.
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 (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 20 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.
Murray Premises, Newman Wine Vaults, Court House.
Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, The Rooms and Fort Townshend, Basilica of St. John the Baptist, Colonial Building, Government House, Commissariat House, St. Thomas' Church, National War Memorial, Harbourside Park.
The Battery, Gibbet Hill, Signal Hill Interpretation Centre, Queen's Battery, Cabot Tower, Ladies Lookout.
Barrel-vaulted cellars of stone and red brick, built for a Devon firm to age port wine imported from Portugal.
The Lombard Romanesque cathedral of 1841 to 1855, built for Newfoundland's Irish Catholics, with Bishop Fleming buried in the crypt.
The Ionic-columned seat of Newfoundland's legislature from 1850 until its final session in July 1959, with painted ceilings of 1880.
Five bronze figures unveiled on July 1, 1924, and since 2024 the tomb of an unknown Newfoundland soldier of the First World War.
The gun positions of 1796 and 1797 high above the Narrows, restored with six 32-pounders facing the harbour entrance.
The red sandstone signal tower of 1898 to 1900 on the hill where Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal in 1901.
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 St. John's — the Harbour, the Battery and Signal Hill, 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 Murray Premises, Basilica of St. John the Baptist, Colonial Building, National War Memorial and Harbourside Park. 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.