Sackville

Sackville is a tiny border town in southeastern New Brunswick, where it (and the even tinier hamlet Aulac) border Amherst (Nova Scotia).

Understand

Sackville, population 5500, is a town on the saltwater Tantramar Marshes in southeastern New Brunswick. It is home to Mount Allison University, a liberal arts university.

Historically, the area was populated by the Mi’kmaq First Nation (Aboriginals). The French-speaking Acadian population settled in the area around 1670. Nearby Aulac (on the Nova Scotia border) was home to Fort Beauséjour, a French fortification defeated in 1755 and now largely in ruins.

Radio-Canada International, the country's former shortwave broadcaster, used tiny Sackville as its transmitter site until it left the air in 2012; the saltwater marshes made an effective reflector at radio frequencies.

Get in

• The Trans-Canada Highway main route, NB 2, passes through Sackville and Aulac before crossing into Nova Scotia as Route 104
• NB 16, the road to the Confederation Bridge and Prince Edward Island, meets NB 2 in Aulac - some 10km (6 miles) east of Sackville
• VIA Rail's Halifax-Montréal "Ocean" train stops in Sackville

Get around

• Sackville Cab, 34 Lorne St, ☎ [phone]. 
• Squires Courtesy Cab, 27 Walker Rd, ☎ [phone]. 

See

• Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, 61 York Street, ☎ [phone]. 10AM-5PM, weekends 1-5PM. The oldest university art gallery in Canada. Free.. 

Do

Duck Walk boardwalk

• Sackville Waterfowl Park. A public boardwalk circles 22 ha (55 acres) of natural habitat for ducks, muskrats and over 150 species of birds. 

Buy

• Sackville Farmers Market, ☎ [phone]. 9AM-noon Saturday. Small farmers, artisans and street restaurants; 30-50 local vendors. 

Eat

• Black Duck Café, 19 Bridge St., ☎ [phone]. Local meeting place serving espresso, pastries and baked goods, seasonal soups, sandwiches and salads. 
• Coy Wolf Bistro, 19 Bridge St., ☎ [phone]. Fresh oysters, food from local farms and courtyard garden (in season), wine list. 
• Goya's Pizza, 96 Main St., ☎ [phone], [phone]. Pizza, donairs and subs. Lebanese food, including chicken and beef shawarma, tabbouleh salad and hummus. 
• Mel's Tea Room, 17 Bridge St., ☎ [phone]. Local 1945 diner serving burgers, home fries and comfort foods. 

Drink

• Ducky's Pub, 4 Bridge St., ☎ [phone]. 
• Painted Pony Bar and Grill, 26 Bridge St, ☎ [phone]. 
• Sassy's Pub, 166 Main St, ☎ [phone]. 

Sleep

• Marshlands Inn, 55 Bridge St., ☎ [phone]. 1854 B&B heritage inn on eight acres with open restaurant for breakfast (about $8), lunch (about $15-20), dinner (about $20-33). about $200/night (double, with breakfast/dinner). 

Connect

• In Aulac, wi-fi and e-mail are available at the provincial travel information office (near the NB 2/16 highway crossroads)
• In Sackville, wi-fi and public access computers are available at the Sackville Public Library, 66 Main St. ([phone], fax [phone], open Tue 1-5PM/6-8PM and Wed-Sat 10AM-noon/1-5PM)

Nearby

Aulac

A tiny New Brunswick hamlet directly on the Nova Scotia border (10km E of Sackville), Aulac occupied a strategic location in the final days of francophone Acadia. Peninsular Nova Scotia was under English control after 1710; New Brunswick remained Acadian until « le grand dérangement » - the forced Acadian exile of 1755. This made tiny Aulac the front line. Fort Beauséjour, a French fortress, was built in 1751 to counter the British Fort Lawrence directly across the border in Nova Scotia.

The ruins of Beauséjour are now a national historic site.

Tiny Aulac has a restaurant and an Irving truck stop. Before the motorway bypassed the hamlet in the 1990s, the Trans-Canada Highway (NB 2) passed directly through the village as Aulac Road.

• 🌍 Fort Beauséjour - Fort Cumberland National Historic Site, 111 Fort Beauséjour Rd, Aulac, ☎ [phone], fax: [phone]. late June to Labour Day, 9AM – 5PM. A French fortress, Fort Beauséjour was built 1751 to counter the British Fort Lawrence (near the site of the ruined Acadian village of Beaubassin) and control the Isthmus of Chignecto . The British defeated Fort Beauséjour in 1755, using it to house Acadians as prisoners (a group of 80 Acadian captives escaped on February 26, 1756) during a period of mass deportations known as le grand dérangement. Acadian refugees resettled as far afield as Louisiana. British forces occupied the fort until 1835; it was then abandoned. The ruins were only partially reconstructed, with a museum on-site. $4. 
• 🌍 The Schnitzel Haus, 153 Aulac Rd, Aulac (across the street from the Irving Big Stop), ☎ [phone]. Near the junction of NB highways 2 and 16. Serves German cuisine, reasonably well-known around the Atlantic provinces due to the relative lack of such cuisine in Atlantic cities. 

Go next

Routes through Sackville

Fredericton ← Moncton ←	W  E	→ NS border (becomes ) → Amherst → Truro
END ← Aulac ←	W  E	→ Jct W → Confederation Bridge (becomes ) → Charlottetown