Audio Tours
The Friends of the Public Gardens have created a library of 5 self-guided audio tours of the Halifax Public Gardens and 2 audio tours of the adjacent Camp Hill Cemetery. Most tours include enhanced descriptions to help people with mobility concerns to follow the tour. Hardcopy companion brochures have also been created for each tour and are available from the spring through the fall in Horticultural Hall in the Halifax Public Gardens.
Below is an index listing our audio tours. Scroll below the index to find a link to listen or download any tour of interest. You will also find a brief description of the tour, a downloadable map, and a written version of the audio tour script. A QR code linking to our audio library is posted outside Horticultural Hall.
Index
Halifax Public Gardens
Special Interest topics
1. Royal Connections Audio Tour 38 min.
2. Japanese Plantings and Connections Audio Tour 28 min.
A 3-part series on the history and horticulture of each part of the Halifax Public Gardens
3. N.S. Horticultural Society Gardens Area Audio Tour (Southern half) 43 min.
4. Weeping Trees Area Audio Tour (NE corner) 37 min.
5. Victorian Jubilee Fountain Area Audio Tour (NW corner) 36 min.
Camp Hill Cemetery
1. Camp Hill Cemetery Audio Tour 50 min.
2. Camp Hill Cemetery Naval and Military Audio Tour 60 min.
Note: A ‘Limited Mobility’ version of the Camp Hill Cemetery Naval and Military Audio Tour is also available. This version contains the same stories but with a tour route that stays on the main paths. Enhanced descriptions and directions are provided.
Halifax Public Gardens
1. Royal Connections Audio Tour
The Royal Connections audio tour is part of a series of audio tours created by the Friends of the Public Gardens.
This 40-minute tour begins at Horticultural Hall, near the Spring Garden Road entrance to the Halifax Public Gardens. The Royal Connections audio tour explores the historical connections between the Halifax Public Gardens and Canada’s Royal Family.
Feel free to download the tour before arriving at the Public Gardens, or simply use your mobile data.
To Access the Audio Tour:
Make sure you are at the Spring Garden Road entrance of the Halifax Public Gardens.
Select play on the embedded player below, and the audio will guide you through the Gardens.
2. Japanese Plantings and Connections Audio Tour
This 28 minute audio tour highlights some of the many plantings of Japanese origin that are found in the Halifax Public Gardens. It also compares the Gardenesque landscape design of the Public Gardens to Japanese garden designs and discusses Halifax’s cultural ties to its sister city Hakodate, Japan. Beginning at the Gardens’ SW entrance at Summer Street and South Park Street, this tour focuses on Japanese plantings in the southern half of the Halifax Public Gardens.
Feel free to download the tour before arriving at the Halifax Public Gardens or simply use your mobile data.
To Access the Audio Tour:
Make sure you are at the entrance of Halifax Public Gardens at the corner of Summer Street and South Park Street (SW corner of the Gardens)
Select play on the embedded player below, and the audio will guide you through the Gardens
3. N.S. Horticultural Society Gardens Audio Tour
This 43-minute audio tour of the southern half of the Halifax Public Gardens focuses on the early history of the Gardens and the amalgamation of the Horticultural Society Gardens and the Halifax Public Gardens. Trees, plantings and landscape design features introduced after amalgamation, when a unifying Gardenesque design was implemented, are highlighted. This audio tour is the first in a 3-part series of audio tours providing details on the history and horticulture of different parts of the Halifax Public Gardens.
Feel free to download the tour before arriving at the Halifax Public Gardens or simply use your mobile data.
To Access the Audio Tour:
Make sure you are at the entrance opening onto the stone plaza in front of Horticultural Hall, located midway along the southern fence of the gardens, along Spring Garden Road
Select play on the embedded player below, and the audio will guide you through the Gardens
4. Weeping Tree Area Tour
Welcome to the Weeping Tree Area tour which explores the founding of the Halifax Public Gardens and discusses the unique features of the trees that inhabit what is now the Northeast corner of the Public Gardens.
This tour uses enhanced verbal descriptions and detailed directions to guide you from one location to the next to create a more accessible experience. If desired, you can obtain a map of the tour route at the visitor information desk inside Horticultural Hall or download it from the “audio tours” on the HalifaxPublicGardens.ca website.
Our tour begins just inside the gate located at the corner of Sackville Street and South Park Street. If you haven’t made it there yet simply pause the audio on your mobile device and resume playback when you’ve reached this entrance.
To Access the Audio Tour:
Make sure you are at the side entrance of Halifax Public Gardens at the corner of Sackville Street and South Park Street (NE corner of the Gardens)
Select play on the embedded player below; the audio will guide you through the Gardens.
5. Victorian Jubilee Fountain Area Audio Tour
This 35-minute audio tour focuses on the horticultural features and history of the northwest corner of the Halifax Public Gardens. The last section of land to be incorporated as part of the Public Gardens in 1874 best exhibits the artistic landscaping designs of the late Victorian gardenesque style, with elegant walkways and flower bed designs and striking specimen trees and ornamentation. Memorials, a staple of Victorian gardens, are also featured. Begins at the Gardens’ NW entrance at Summer Street and Sackville Street.
Feel free to download the tour before arriving at the Halifax Public Gardens or use your mobile data.
To Access the Audio Tour:
· Make sure you are at the entrance of Halifax Public Gardens at the corner of Summer
Street and Sackville Street (NW corner of the Gardens)
· Select play on the embedded player below, and the audio will guide you through the
Gardens
Camp Hill Cemetery
1. Camp Hill Cemetery Audio Tour
This 50-minute tour begins at the Summer Street entrance of Camp Hill Cemetery and explores the stories of some key historical figures that helped shape the history of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Feel free to download the tour before arriving at Camp Hill Cemetery or use your mobile data.
To Access the Audio Tour:
Make sure you are at the Summer Street entrance of Camp Hill Cemetery.
Select play on the embedded player below and the audio will guide you through Camp Hill Cemetery.
2. Camp Hill Cemetery Naval and Military History Audio Tour
This 60-minute tour begins at the Carlton Street entrance to the Camp Hill Cemetery. With its origins in Halifax’s military past nearly two centuries ago, Camp Hill Cemetery offers a fascinating window into the conflicts Canadians and foreigners fought, and how they lived and died. This tour covers ten individual sites in the cemetery, with grave markers of sailors, soldiers and airmen from the First and Second World Wars some interesting anomalies outside these conflicts.
This tour was developed in cooperation with the Halifax Military History Preservation Society and was written and narrated by Captain Tom Tulloch, MSM, CD, RCN (retired).
Feel free to download the tour before arriving at Camp Hill Cemetery or use your mobile data.
To Access the Audio Tour:
Make sure you are at the Carlton Street entrance of the Camp Hill Cemetery
Select play on the embedded player below, and the audio will guide you through the Camp Hill Cemetery
*** Limited Mobility version of Camp Hill Cemetery Naval and Military Audio Walking Tour
Same stories as the original tour above but this version has a tour route that remains on main paths for easier movement. Enhanced descriptions of grave sites not visible from paths are included, and detailed directions and distances in metres are given.
Credits
Special thanks to the people who contributed to the self-guided audio and brochure tours project:
Contractors: Michael Nearing (all), Deirdre Morrison (Royal and Camp Hill Cemetery), Soundcloud. ca
Volunteers: Barbara Carleton (producer, all), Tom Tulloch (writer Naval and Military; narrator and editor Naval and Military, Japanese Connections, NS Hort Society and Victoria Jubilee Fountain Area), Judith Cabrita (editor, all), Janet Brush (finance, all), Laura Caswell (narrator Weeping Tree), Barbara Bickle (website, all)
We would also like to acknowledge Halifax Foundation, HRM Community Grants 2021 and 2022, and Canada Gives for their important financial support in developing this library of self-guided tours.
Finally, we would like to thank the Halifax Public Garden staff and The Friends of the Public Gardens volunteers, particularly Harry Popowich, who provided input and feedback.