Sir Sandford Fleming Park and the Dingle Walking Trails, Halifax

If you are looking for a great escape in the middle of the city, head to the Sandford Fleming Park, near the Armdale Rotary! It is also referred to as The Dingle.

About the Park

Located off of the Purcells Cove road, Fleming park is grounds formerly owned by Sir Sandford Fleming, otherwise known as the creator of universal standard time. Fleming donated the land and the Dingle Tower monument to the city in the 1880’s.

Probably the most famous thing about the Dingle is the tall stone tower that provides a great look out over the water.

The Dingle Tower with bronze lions at the foot was dedicated in 1912 to commemorate 150 years of representative government.
You can actually go inside the tower and climb to the very top!

The 95-acre park has four natural habitats (woodlands, heath barren, salt water and pond), walking trails, the Dingle Tower, a sandy beach for supervised swimming, a wharf and a boat launch.

Walking Trails

We spent some time exploring the walking trails of the Sandford Fleming Park. All the trails are well labeled, but we recommend looking at the map at the main parking lot and plotting your route.

Being type A, I printed the map before we went, and David had it on his phone for easy consultation.

Here is a link to a map

We decided to loop along the shoreline.

There are about 2.8km of trails within the Sandford Fleming Park itself, not including the frog pond, across the street.

Then, we headed inland and crossed the Dingle Road to loop around the Frog Pond Trail.

You can access the frog pond by a large set of stairs on the Dingle Road (can’t miss), or a path slightly further down.
You can make the walk from the Frog Pond Parking lot to the waterfront and back in less than an hour.

At one point, the trail actually leads to a main road. Walk along the edge, following the shore of the pond, and you will be able to pick up the trail again a few minutes down the road in another parking lot.