Open Doors Kingston

Open Doors is a event where the 28 local historical places open their doors for the public. In Kingston there is one very special Martello Tower -called the Shoal tower which is only open to the public on this one day. This year they had historical interpeters from the actual unit that manned these British fortifications giving the tour.  So here's some pictures from the tour and the day. Kingston is called the Limestone City which I'm sure you can see why :)

 The Shoal Tower -it is the only Martello tower that is completely surrounded by water. There are four of these fortifications in Kingston -two up the hill by Fort Henry, this one right in the harbour by City Hall and one down the road across from the Hospital (The Murney Tower which is completely restored to show what life was like during that time).  There were 16 of these towers built -only 11 survive today and four of them are here in KIngston.

 Inside the tower -the walls are 14 feet thick on the harbour side, 8 feet thick facing Kingston.

Here you can see the other towers up the hill with Canada's Roayl Military College and Fort Henry further up there -all constructed out of limestone.

 Our guides in their full wool uniforms - see there is fibre content :)

 Two of the guns at the top of the tower -they are on rail sliders so they can go all the way arround the tower.

 Our guide fired off his rifle to show us how hard it was to fire.

 Daryl found something he wanted to bring home with him LOL

 City Hall -made entirely from limestone -this is how close it is to the fortifications.

 Our second stop of the day -the penitentary museum -this use to be the Warden's house -again quarried out of limestone.

Here's his front window view - Kingston Penitentary - a maximum security prison and the oldest in Canada.
There is actually a limestone quarry that was manned by the prisoners inside the walls -one of the most famous chrurchs in Kingston is made from Limestone quarried entirely by the prisoners and is called "The Church of the Good Thief"